


Hurry Up, Get Happy

by GothicDeetz



Series: Lost Ghosts [1]
Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Afterlife, Anniversary, Cancer, Dead People, Death, Demons, Depression, F/M, Families of Choice, Family, Family Bonding, Family Issues, Father Figures, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Gen, Ghosts, Loss of Parent(s), Mentions of Cancer, Mother Figures, Multi, Novel, One Big Happy Family, Step-parents, Talking, Talking To Dead People, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 28,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24219583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothicDeetz/pseuds/GothicDeetz
Summary: It’s the anniversary of the death of Lydia’s mom.All four of Lydia’s parents have noticed that she’s been down, the only ones Lydia seems to be wanting to spend time with being her dad and Betelgeuse. When he and Betelgeuse start to notice she’s spending more time with them and less time with Delia and the Maitlands, he and Betelgeuse strive to get her to at least spend time with them. But will she?When Lydia and Betelgeuse start going out more often to go and look for lost ghosts, Lydia ends a day getting grounded by all four of her parents.And when Lydia loses the ability to see the Maitlands, her dad, Delia, and Betelgeuse must do everything they can to help her be able to see them again.
Relationships: Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Charles Deetz, Beetlejuice & Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz, Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz & Original Character(s), Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice) & Original Character(s), Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Charles Deetz/Delia Deetz, Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Lydia Deetz & Barbara Maitland, Lydia Deetz & Original Character(s)
Series: Lost Ghosts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775074
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	1. Signs Of Depression

“Adam?” Barbara asked as she entered the attic. “Have you seen Lydia anywhere? I’d like to talk to her.” 

Adam looked up, putting a stop to working on his model of the town. “Last I checked,” he said, “she went up to the roof.”

“Did she tell you why?”

“No.” Adam shook his head. “I asked her and all she did was stay quiet. She did look down though.”

“Well,” Barbara said as she moved over towards the window that led out onto the roof and opened it. “I’m going to go out there and make sure she’s okay.” With that, Barbara climbed out onto the roof.

“Good luck, dear,” Adam said, going back to working on his model.

* * *

  
“Lydia?!” Barbara called out. “Are you up here?”

She found the teenager sitting on top of the railing surrounding the edge of the roof, her head resting on top of her knees. Her arms were wrapped around her knees and her eyes were focused on the ground below.

Adam was right. She did look down.

Barbara wondered what was going on.

“Lydia?!” Barbara called out again, this time grabbing the teenager’s attention. “Is everything okay?”

Lydia turned towards her. “Go away, Barbara.”

But Barbara decided against that, instead choosing to lean against the railing right next to Lydia. “I’ll ask you this again: is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine!” Lydia spat.

“I can tell something’s wrong,” Barbara said.

Barbara placed an ice cold hand on Lydia’s back and the teenager flinched at the contact, pulling away from her and nearly falling off of the railing. She was lucky Barbara used her ghost powers to catch her in time.

“Why don’t you talk to Delia about whatever it is,” Barbara continued, placing Lydia down away from the railing. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to help you.”

“I don’t need her help!” Lydia spat as she made her way over to the window and crawled back inside.

Barbara sighed, following Lydia back in. She made sure to have a conversation with Delia about Lydia when she had the time.  
  


* * *

  
Barbara found Delia in the latter’s bedroom, sewing one of Lydia’s dresses that had torn a week ago. Lydia’s former Life Coach sensed Barbara’s presence in the room and made to finish sewing before she turned her attention onto the female ghost.

“Is something the matter, Barbara?” Delia asked, calmly.

Barbara floated further into the room, sitting herself down next to Delia on top of the bed the latter shared with Charles. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s about Lydia.”

“What about her?”

“Well.” Barbara looked to the side. “I found her sitting on top of the railing at the edge of the roof this morning. She looked a little down. I was wondering if you could perhaps talk to her?”

“I can try,” was all Delia said.

“Great.” Barbara nodded and left the room.

* * *

Lydia sat with her dad in the latter’s office, a photo book open to a random page lay down on the floor in front of them. Charles pointed to a random picture.

“Do you remember this?” Charles asked his daughter.

Lydia nodded. “Was that the time dead mom threw a sheet over her head and pretended to be a ghost to joke around with us?”

“Yep.” Charles nodded as well. “It was so funny I had to take a picture.” He was about to point out another memory when Delia poked her head into his office.

“Sorry to interrupt this touching moment,” Delia said in apology. “But is there a particular reason why you’re feeling down, Lydia?”

“I thought I told Barbara I didn’t want to talk to you about this!” Lydia spat, exiting her dad’s office and stomping upstairs to her bedroom. Tucked under her arm was one of the photo albums containing pictures of her, her dad, and her dead mom back when they lived in New York City.

The Deetz couple looked at one another and sighed in unison. They’d leave Lydia alone for now and, hopefully, so would the Maitlands.

But that didn’t last long.

* * *

Barbara knocked on Lydia’s bedroom door and all she got from the teenager was a grumbled, “go away!”

“Lydia, I just want to talk.” She phased through Lydia’s locked bedroom door and sat herself down next to Lydia on the latter’s bed.

Lydia just turned away from her. “There’s nothing to talk about, Barb.”

”Come on, Lydia. Please?”

Lydia sighed. “Oh alright...one year ago today, my mom died from cancer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story I consider to be the original version of my other story, “You’re My Home” even though “You’re My Home” was published first. Go read that while you have the chance.


	2. Worried

"She told me everything," Barbara explained to Charles an hour later. The still-living man listened, nodding along as Barbara continued speaking, "I didn't know that it's been a year since your first wife died of cancer. It must be hard. Right?"

Charles's nodding slowed. "It is."

"When was she diagnosed with cancer?" the female ghost asked.

"At the beginning of last year," Charles replied, a sad tone to his voice. He sighed and continued to speak, "Lydia and I were equally worried about her. Lydia even more so than I was. We were both afraid she was going to pass on within a month of her diagnosis. She was a fighter to have had made it to the end of last year."

"Were you and Lydia pained when you guys received the news about her death."

"Me, I was as equally pained as Lydia was. It worried me when Lydia's pain showed when I was trying my best to hide my pain. That's why I hired Delia to be Lydia's Life Coach after taking Lydia to see a Psychiatrist didn't work."

"When did you fall in love with Delia?" Barbara asked curiously. Charles thought to himself for a minute.

"It was nearing the end of mine and Lydia's first visit to her office," Charles explained with a smile and Barbara nodded along. "She was telling me about her first boyfriend and about how he left her to live with his boyfriend in Rome. I felt sorry for her and assured her that everything was going to be alright."

"Long story short?"

"Long story short," Charles said with a chuckle. "I guess Delia and I clicked over loss. After Lydia and I left Delia's office, I started going on secret dates with Delia whilst Lydia was at school."

"So she didn't know about the relationship you had with Delia until she pulled the sheets off your bed and discovered Delia underneath them," Barbara said knowingly. She still remembered that day. As did the rest, excluding Betelgeuse, of the Maitland-Deetz Family.

Charles nodded in response, a sad smile on his face. "I hadn't quite anticipated on her finding out that way. Delia and I were going to wait until we announced our wedding to tell her."

"By the way?" Barbara asked. "When is yours and Delia's wedding scheduled?"

"In a couple months from now," came Charles's immediate response. "Around the end of February."

Barbara nodded. "Have you thought about having it here at the house? If it is, Adam and I would love to come."

"That depends." Charles laughed. "Is the backyard big enough?"

"Why don't you go outside and see for yourself."

"I'll do that later," Charles said. "Right now, it looks like Lydia wants to talk to either one of us."

"Actually, dad," Lydia interrupted. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Alright," Charles said, surprised. "I guess I'll wait until tomorrow to check to see if the backyard is big enough for a wedding." He followed Lydia out of his office.

Barbara left soon after, heading back up to the attic.

* * *

Barbara found her husband in the attic, still working on his model of the town of Winter River, and quietly coughed to grab his attention. He stopped working on his model, placing down a model house, and looked up towards her.

“Was there something you needed, Barbara, honey?” he asked as Barbara sat herself down in a chair and focused her attention on him. He sat down next to her and rested an arm around her shoulder. She placed a hand on top of his.

“You know,” Barbara quietly told her husband, “I’m still worried about Lydia. I get why she’s been down but it’s worse than when she, her dad, and Delia first moved in.”

“Did she tell you why she was down?” Adam asked.

“Yeah, she told me it was the first anniversary of her mother’s death.”

Adam thought to himself for a minute. “I think I’ll go talk to her for a little bit.” He left the attic and Barbara followed closely behind, not wanting to be left alone.

* * *

The two ghosts found Lydia and Charles sitting together on the back deck of the house. They tried their best to stay hidden, their heads and the top halves of their bodies poking through a wall. From the sounds of it, Lydia and Charles were, again, talking about Lydia’s mom.

Lydia was the first to notice that Adam and Barbara were there, Charles following soon after, and turned to look at them.

“How long have you guys been there?” she asked her ghost parents.

They looked at one another before refocusing their attention back over towards Lydia and Charles, both of whom were looking at them. Charles had a smile on his face and Lydia, a frown on her face. The Maitlands could tell Lydia didn’t want them here at the moment but decided against going back inside.

“We just wanted to check on you,” Barbara said, “Adam and I are worried about you.”

“And I just wanted to spend some quiet time with my dad,” came Lydia’s response. The Maitlands both looked hurt. They both didn’t expect Lydia to say something like that.

They disappeared back inside, leaving Lydia alone with Charles.

Charles looked at his daughter, astonished. “Lydia,” he said and she looked at him. “Later, I want you to apologize to Adam and Barbara.”

“I will,” was all she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The exact date that I have decided in my head for the wedding of Charles and Delia in this story is February 26th - the same day I saw Beetlejuice: the Musical on Broadway.


	3. Apologies

Lydia found Adam and Barbara sulking in the attic fifteen minutes later. Their heads down. She approached them quietly, unsure of what to say.

That’s when they looked up at her...the moment she sat herself down across from them. A smile formed on Lydia’s face and the Maitlands adopted equal smiles on their faces. “Are you here to apologize to us, Lydia?” Barbara asked.

Lydia nodded, stood up, and sat herself in between both ghosts. She placed an arm around their shoulders. “I’m sorry,” Lydia said. “For telling you guys I would rather not spend time with you.”

“Apology accepted,” the Maitlands said in unison.

Lydia smiled — even more this time.

* * *

Even though they didn’t need to eat, the Maitlands decided to join Lydia, Charles, and Delia for lunch. But still, Delia chose to place two plates of food in front of the two ghosts. They smiled to her in thanks and just stared down at their food.

“Is something wrong, you two?” Charles asked both ghosts.

“Nono,” Barbara said with a laugh. “We’re fine, Charles.”

Charles just nodded, picking up his fork and beginning to eat his food. Delia and Lydia did the same and the Maitlands just watched them eat.

As Delia and Barbara cleared away the dishes, Charles sat with Adam on the couch and the two of them were talking about various things that ranged from what Adam’s life was like before he and Barbara died to what Charles’s life was like before moving in.

Lydia had since gone upstairs to her room, presumably to do her own thing. None of her parents knew what it was.

* * *

Lydia closed the door to her bedroom and sat herself down on her bed, resting a hand on her chin. She didn’t want her dad to know she was going back to the Netherworld to try to search for her mom again nor did she want him to find out.

But first, she needed to do something.

With a breath, she spoke, “Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse!”

He appeared in a flash of light not too long after, standing in front of Lydia. “Did you need anything, Scarecrow?”

“I want to go to the Netherworld to search for my dead mom,” Lydia said quietly, hoping not to be overheard by her father. “It’s the first anniversary of her death and I’d like to have a chance to be able to talk to her again.”

“No can do, Scarecrow,” was Betelgeuse’s response.

Lydia’s eyes widened. “W-what?”

“She’s already been seen and is most likely doing her own thing in the Netherworld, Lyds. You won’t be able to find her even if you tried. Don’t you remember the last time you went to the Netherworld to try and search for her?”

“How do you know this?” Lydia asked carefully and quietly.

“How do I know this?” Betelgeuse repeated, thinking to himself. “Let’s just say I was there when she first arrived to the Netherworld. You did see her ghost leave for the Netherworld last year? Did you not? Or were you not able to see ghosts by then?”

Lydia tried her best to remember if she did or not then it came flooding back to her. “Actually,” she said, “I might have done but I don’t remember. I’ll go downstairs and ask my dad.”

Lydia came back upstairs five minutes later and closed her bedroom door before focusing her attention towards Betelgeuse, who was now floating in midair — a few feet above Lydia’s bed. He focused his attention onto her and disappeared in a flash of light before reappearing sat on the ground in front of Lydia.

As Lydia sat herself down, Betelgeuse asked, “What did your dad say, Scarecrow?”

“He told me that he did notice me acting weird after my mom died,” Lydia explained. “Staring towards the wall as if there was something there.”

“Like a door that led to the Netherworld and a flash of light?” Betelgeuse asked knowingly.

Lydia nodded. “I told him that that was exactly what I saw.”

“Lydia!” shouted a voice from downstairs.

Lydia got up and turned towards Betelgeuse. “I’ll be back,” she said.


	4. Family Meeting

Lydia returned within ten minutes, closing her bedroom door behind her and turning to find Betelgeuse slumped on her bed and snoring away. She let out a few chuckles, which surprisingly woke her best demon friend up. He shot up with a jolt and turned, focusing his attention onto her.

“So,” he asked. “What did your four parents want you for, Lyds?”

“They just wanted to make sure I was okay, Beej,” was the teenager’s response. “Y’know, I’m still thinking about going to the Netherworld and talking to my mom. Can I?”

“Like I said earlier, Lydia, no can do.”

Lydia put on her best puppy dog face. “Please???”

“Lyds, I said no!”

“Please???” Lydia repeated.

“No, Lydia!” Betelgeuse shouted as loud as he could, his hair turning a bright Red.

Tears began to form in Lydia’s eyes.

At that moment, there were a few knocks on Lydia’s bedroom door and both she and Betelgeuse turned towards it.

“Who is it?” Lydia asked.

“It’s Barbara!” shouted a voice from the other side of the door. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

At that, Barbara phased through Lydia’s bedroom door and sat herself down on Lydia’s bed. Lydia sat next to her ghost mother and Betelgeuse sat on the floor in front of the two of them. Lydia turned to face her ghost mother and asked,

“Was there something that you needed, Barbara?” 

Barbara nodded. “Adam, Charles, Delia, and I have already guessed that you summoned Betelgeuse. We could’ve sworn we heard him shouting at you all the way downstairs. What was all that about?”  
  
  


Lydia nervously exchanged glances with Betelgeuse. She didn’t know exactly how she was going to explain to Barbara the reason why Betelgeuse had yelled at her.

Luckily, Betelgeuse decided to go ahead and explain everything to Barbara for her. “I yelled at her because she kept asking me to take her to the Netherworld to talk to her mom and I kept telling her no but she wouldn’t listen.”

“Hey!!!” Lydia glared at Betelgeuse and she got a smirk in return.

Barbara looked at Betelgeuse before focusing her attention onto a still angered Lydia. “Is this true?” she asked the teenager.

“Yeah.” Lydia looked down, sadly, towards the ground.

Barbara sighed. “I think the six of us are going to have to have a family meeting about this.”

With that, she got up and left. Lydia and Betelgeuse groaned, stood up, and followed Barbara out of Lydia’s bedroom, Betelgeuse closing the door behind him.

* * *

Family meetings between the six members, it was usually just the five of them but Betelgeuse was allowed to take part in any of the meetings if he happened to be at the house when a meeting was occurring, of the Maitland-Deetz family weren’t that long unless the meeting was on a serious matter and this was one of those meetings that was on a serious matter.

Lydia, Betelgeuse, Adam, Barbara, and Delia sat together on the couch in the living room, watching on as Charles paced around. The living male had a hand resting against his chin and his eyes focused on the carpet — away from the rest of the family.

“So let me get this straight,” Charles said sternly as he came to a stop in front of his nervous daughter. “Betelgeuse yelled at you because you kept asking him to take you to the Netherworld just so you could try and search for your mother....again?”

All Lydia did was nod.

Charles sighed and turned to Betelgeuse. “And you kept telling her no?”

“Yeah,” Betelgeuse said.

Charles groaned and sat in between the two of them, keeping his attention focused on Betelgeuse. “Did you tell Lydia why you were against taking her back to the Netherworld?”

“I’m not sure I did but I did tell her that her mother’s probably doing her own thing in the Netherworld.”

Charles turned to face his daughter again.

Lydia began to giggle. “I believe the exact words you said were ‘she’s already been seen and is most likely doing her own thing in the Netherworld, Lyds. You won’t be able to find her even if you tried. Don’t you remember the last time you went to the Netherworld’?”

Betelgeuse shot Lydia a hard glare and Lydia giggled.

Charles sighed. “I believe what Betelgeuse told you is true, Lydia, sweetheart. At that, I refuse to allow you to go back to the Netherworld after what happened the last time.”

“But dad...”

“No buts, Lydia,” Charles firmly said, standing up. “You’re not going back to the Netherworld. End of discussion.”

Lydia grumbled and stomped upstairs, Betelgeuse following close behind her. The rest of the Maitland-Deetz family stared after the two of them for a while.

“Well, that was interesting...alright,” Barbara commented.

“Agreed,” Adam, Charles, and Delia said in unison.

With the family meeting over and done with, all four adults decided to go and do their own things, leaving Lydia alone for the time being.

Charles secretly hoped Lydia wouldn’t go back to the Netherworld against his wishes.

Boy would he be wrong.


	5. Distractions

As soon as Betelgeuse was inside of Lydia’s bedroom, the teenager slammed the door closed and turned to face him, a look of anger plastered on her face.

“I don’t care WHAT my father says!” she shouted, clenching her fists. “I’m going to the Netherworld to search for my dead mom!” Betelgeuse just looked at the teenager with a look of concern plastered on his face. Lydia continued with her rant, beginning to pace around her bedroom. “I’m going to talk to her and tell her how much I missed her if I ever get the chance to find her!”

“But, Lyds,” Betelgeuse began and the teen stopped pacing her room, turning to face him again. “I already told you earlier that I wasn’t going to escort you to the Netherworld to look for your mom.”

“And I don’t care!” Lydia spoke in an annoyed voice. “Take me to the Netherworld or I’ll say your name, send you back there, and never speak to you again!”

Betelgeuse backed away, concerned by the threat that Lydia had just made towards him.   


He had no choice now. He had to take her to the Netherworld.

* * *

Downstairs, in the kitchen, Delia and Barbara sat together and discussed what to make for dinner. Adam and Charles were in the basement, watching the tv together and chatting casually about the house’s history. Delia and Barbara would call them back upstairs when they figured out what exactly they were going to make for dinner that night.

“I just don’t know, Delia,” Barbara lamented to her Life Coach friend. “Do you have any ideas on what to make for dinner?”

“Well, we could make spaghetti bolognese tonight,” Delia suggested. “But we had that last night and the night before last. We really need to have something different. I’m gonna go downstairs and ask Charles what he feels like having for dinner tonight.”

With that said, she went downstairs to the basement.   


* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse needed a distraction if they were going to be going to the Netherworld — at Lydia’s suggestion — to search for Lydia’s mom. Hopefully and successfully this time around. Lydia still remembered unsuccessfully being able to find and talk to her mom the last time she was in the Netherworld.

“We could set the house on fire,” Betelgeuse suggested with a smirk.

“No,” Lydia said, sitting on her bed. “I did that the last time I chose to distract them from knowing I was about to do something dangerous and I got into quite a heap of trouble with all four of my parents. Hey! I got an idea! Why don’t we set the smoke detectors off at once. That would be a great distraction. It would always work.”

“Shall I?” Betelgeuse asked knowingly.

“You shall,” Lydia said with a small smirk.

Betelgeuse used his powers to set Lydia’s smoke detector off and that, in turn, made the rest of the smoke detectors in the house go off. With a knowing glance to one another, Betelgeuse drew a door to the Netherworld and he and Lydia both went through it. Then the door closed shut behind them.

* * *

Delia entered the basement of the house, finding Charles and Adam in the middle of an intense game of pool. Not wanting to disturb the two men, Delia crept down the stairs and stood a good distance away from them. That’s when Adam turned and noticed her standing there and waiting.

“Delia!” the male ghost called out to the Life Coach. “Did you need anything?”

“Yes actually,” Delia said. “Charles!” she called out, getting his attention. “What do you feel like for dinner tonight? Barbara and I can’t seem to think of what to make.”

“Hm, that’s a good question,” Charles responded, thinking to himself. “I can’t think of anything,” he finally said with a shrug.

“Oh alright,” Delia said as she turned to make her way back upstairs. “I’m heading back up. Let me know when you think of what you want. I just hope nothing happened whilst I was down here.”

That’s when the smoke detector in the basement went off.

“I spoke too soon,” Delia admitted as she, Charles, and Adam headed up the stairs.

They came upstairs to find Barbara in the hallway, staring up at another one of the house’s smoke detectors which also seemed to be going off. She looked at them and shrugged. “It seems that every one of the smoke detectors in the house are going off,” she said with a sigh.

Then it hit them. In a hurry they went upstairs to Lydia’s bedroom. Charles knocked on his daughter’s door.

“Lydia?!” he called out. No answer.

Charles let out a sigh, then he opened Lydia’s bedroom door.

They were surprised to find it empty. No sign of Lydia or Betelgeuse anywhere. Then Barbara noticed the faint outline of a door to the Netherworld. Frantic, she turned to face Charles.

“I think I know where they went,” she said in a panic.

That’s when the rest of the adults noticed the faint door to the Netherworld in the wall of Lydia’s bedroom.

“She didn’t,” Charles muttered, panicking.

“She did,” Delia, Adam, and Barbara said in unison.

Then Charles had an idea. He had to fetch Lydia and Betelgeuse from the Netherworld.

“I’m going in after them!” Charles announced, heading towards the door that led to the Netherworld. Knocking on it three times and going through before Adam, Barbara, or even Delia could think to stop him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day? I’m on a roll.


	6. Found

Charles found Lydia and Betelgeuse creeping quietly through the Netherworld, neither one of them paying attention to him. That is, until he coughed a couple times.

In an instant, they turned towards him with equal panicked looks on their faces.

“Dad? What are you-?” Lydia began before getting cut off by Charles holding up a hand. Almost immediately, Lydia closed her mouth.

“The three of us are going back home now!” Charles demanded quietly, reaching over, grabbing Lydia’s and Betelgeuse’s hands and beginning to drag them over towards an open door to the Netherworld.

Lydia let go of her dad’s hand. “I’m not going back home until I find and talk to mom.”

“Lydia!”

But it was too late, Lydia had already taken off running down a random hallway, leaving an equally concerned Charles and Betelgeuse just standing there. They shared knowing looks and took off running down the same hallway the teenager had just gone down.

“Lydia!” they shouted in unison. “Wait for us!”

* * *

Back at the Maitland-Deetz house, Delia and Barbara were still stuck on what to make for dinner. Despite it being only four o’clock in the afternoon. Adam paced around the kitchen. It had been an hour since Charles had headed into the Netherworld to find and bring back Lydia and Betelgeuse and he still wasn’t back yet. They’d have thought he’d have been back now but guess not.

They were still waiting. Now it looked like dinner was going to be over by the time Lydia, Betelgeuse, and Charles were back. Lydia and Charles...in the Netherworld without any food. That thought upset the remaining three members of the Maitland-Deetz family. Unless Betelgeuse could provide food to Lydia and Charles.

“You don’t think he’s decided to join Lydia and Betelgeuse in the Netherworld,” Delia mumbled, sadly.

“I don’t think so,” Barbara replied, placing an ice cold hand on Delia’s back. “I’m sure they’ll be back soon.”

“But it’s been an hour since he left to find them,” Adam said, stopping pacing the kitchen and turning to face both of the women. “I really do think he’s found them right now but knowing Lydia and Betelgeuse went to the Netherworld to search for Lydia’s late mom and Charles’ late wife, I think we can all assume that he would want to find and talk to her too.”

“I hope not,” Delia muttered, glancing up towards the ceiling.

* * *

Charles and Betelgeuse caught up to Lydia, the former of the two males out of and catching his breath. Lydia stood, her fists balled at her sides and her head down. She sighed and turned to face her dad and Betelgeuse.

“Haven’t found her yet?” Betelgeuse asked.

“No,” was Lydia’s immediate response.

Charles made his way over towards his daughter and kneeled down in front of her, placing a hand flat on top of her shoulder. Lydia looked down, noticing that her dad had a look of anger plastered on his face and she immediately knew why he was upset with her.

“Mad at me for entering the Netherworld against your wishes, huh, dad,” Lydia said knowingly.

Charles nodded. “Yeah. I can’t believe that you would do something like this. Setting off all the smoke detectors in the house as a distraction whilst you come here. When we get home, you are in so much trouble, young lady.”

Lydia mumbled a quiet, “I know, dad.”

* * *

The smoke detectors at the Maitland-Deetz house were still going off, and it was starting to bother Delia, Adam, and Barbara. One by one, Adam and Barbara turned all of them off. Adam handled the ones upstairs and Barbara handled the ones downstairs and in the basement. Adam turned off the last of the upper floor smoke detectors and joined Delia and Barbara in the living room.

“Well, that just about covers it,” Adam said as he sat himself down on the couch next to Barbara and switched on the television. The show that was playing right now was one of Lydia’s favorite ghost hunting shows and Adam, Barbara, and Delia resorted to watching it. “Hopefully Lydia doesn’t set the smoke detectors off again. I’ve had enough of her coming up with ways to distract us just so she can be chaotic.”

“You said it,” Delia and Barbara said in unison.

Delia pulled out her phone and saw that it was five minutes past six. She stood up and made her way into the kitchen area. But not before turning and shouting over to the Maitlands,

“I’m gonna go ahead and microwave myself some Mac n Cheese, it should only take five minutes, then I’ll come back in here and join you guys on the couch.”

“Okay, Delia!” the two ghosts shouted back.

* * *

Charles, Lydia, and Betelgeuse had been walking through themany hallways of the Netherworld for what seemed like forever. Not even Charles could tell how long they’d been there. The living male had been glancing at his watch on repeat only to keep finding out that it was going faster than it did when he was back at home.

They were no closer to finding Emily. And even Charles had to admit that he missed her and wanted to talk to her just as much as Lydia did. Her short, Black hair, her soft Brown eyes, her caring smile. Charles missed seeing that and so did Lydia.

Charles and Lydia sat down, their stomachs rumbling. They were both hungry. Betelgeuse took immediate notice of this, summoning two fully microwaved meals and handing them to the two humans.

“There you go guys,” he said with a smile. “Eat up.”

Within ten fast minutes, Lydia and Charles were done with their food. Lydia looked up at Betelgeuse with a smile on her face. “Thank you so much, Beej,” she said.

“You’re very welcome, Scarecrow, C-Man,” Betelgeuse responded with an equal smile on his face. “Now shall we continue on with searching?”

“We shall,” Lydia and Charles said in unison and off the three of them went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told myself I wasn’t going to write a chapter for this story today but here we are!


	7. Mom!

They kept walking and walking until they reached the end of yet another hallway in the Netherworld and turned down another one. They’d still gotten nowhere near finding Emily and they were starting to lose hope. Recently deceased after recently deceased walked down the same hallways as Lydia, Betelgeuse, and Charles and thankfully — none of them had gotten caught...

...yet.

No run-ins with Betelgeuse’s mother — Lydia and her dad both still hoped that Juno was long gone after Betelgeuse unleashed that Sandworm on her and gotten her eaten by said giant, Black and White striped worm — or even the Argentinian beauty pageant winner that Charles and Lydia had met the last time they were in the Netherworld. The two of them began to wonder why she hadn’t shown her face to them this time. Surely she would’ve by now. But no. There was no sign of that beauty pageant winner.

Lydia and her dad breathed equal sighs of relief and refocused on the task at hand: finding Emily and talking to her.

But Lydia couldn’t get her memories of the beauty pageant winner she and her dad met out of her mind and she turned to look at Betelgeuse with a curious look in her eyes. “Hey, Beej?” she asked and he focused his attention on her.

“Mm?” he spoke.

“What happened to that deceased beauty pageant winner my dad and I met the last time we were here inside of the Netherworld?” Lydia asked, interested.

“Beauty pageant winner?” Betelgeuse repeated, trying to think to himself. Then he immediately remembered who it was that Lydia was talking about. “Do you mean Miss Argentina, Scarecrow?”

“Oh, is that her name?” Lydia asked and Betelgeuse nodded.

“She,” Betelgeuse said, trying his best to remember. “After mymom was eaten by that Sandworm that I rode into your house, the Netherworld went into a bit of a panic. They needed a new head of the Netherworld and they’d asked me considering I was the son of the previous head of the Netherworld but I turned it down so instead they promoted her to head of the Netherworld.”

“So this beauty pageant winner that Lydia and I met the last time we were here is in charge of the whole of the Netherworld now?” Charles asked suddenly, becoming interested in the conversation Lydia and Betelgeuse were having.

“Indeed,” was Betelgeuse’s response.

They turned down another hallway and there was still no sign of Emily. Charles groaned. How many hallways were they going to have to go down before they found Emily? The answer, they all hoped, would hopefully be not too many more hallways.

They reached the end of the current hallway they were walking down and began to walk down another. In this hallway was at least one deceased person. One with short, Brown hair that looked a little bit like Lydia’s. Charles coughed and the deceased turned her head to look directly at him. Her Brown eyes locked with his and she placed a transparent hand over her mouth.

“Emily?” Charles spoke, equally as shocked as the ghost in front of him. “Is that you?”

She shot up in surprise, floating over towards Charles and tackling him to the ground in a huge hug. Charles laughed softly and quietly, wrapping his arms around his late first wife.

“Charles!” Emily shouted as she squeezed him even more than she was before. “It’s so good to see you again! How are you and Lydia doing?”

“Good,” Charles replied with another laugh. “Emily, could you please let me go. I need some air.”

“Air?” Emily repeated, confused. “You mean you’re not dead?”

“No!” Lydia suddenly spoke up, directing her late mother’s attention over towards her. Emily gasped, even louder, when she locked eyes with her daughter. “And neither am I. The only dead people in this hallway are this guy.” Lydia motioned to Betelgeuse, who smiled and gave Emily a small wave. “And you, mom,” Lydia finished.

“Wait? If you guys aren’t dead, then why are you here?” Emily asked, confused.

Charles nervously looked down towards the checkered floor of the hallway of the Netherworld that they were standing in and scratched the back of his head before refocusing his attention back over towards his late first wife. “Well,” he said with a start. “We’ve been here before. Lydia had desperately wanted to find you that time and we left with no such luck. But now...” Charles trailed off.

Again, Emily placed a transparent hand over her mouth and she used her other hand to pull the still-living male close to her. Clear tears started to pour down the ghost’s face and that very action was mirrored by Charles. Lydia, tearing up as well, decided to join her parent’s hug. Betelgeuse, wanting to let the family of three have their moment, stayed back and watched as the three of them hugged each other.

Almost instantaneously, Lydia turned her head towards her best demon friend and began to usher him over. “Y’know you can join in on the hug too, Betelgeuse,” she said. “We won’t mind.”

“Nono,” he replied, backing up some more. “I’d rather just stay out of it. Let the three of you have a moment.”

“Well, if you say so.” And with that, Lydia went back to hugging her dad and dead mom.

A while later, Charles and Lydia pulled away from Emily and Charles turned towards a wall. “Well,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of chalk he’d put there before heading back into the Netherworld to fetch Lydia and Betelgeuse. “I guess that the three of us better head back home.” He gestured to himself, then Lydia, and finally Betelgeuse. “It was nice getting to see you again, Em, especially on the first anniversary of your death.” He, Lydia, and Betelgeuse began to head over towards the door Charles had drawn on the wall at the end of the hallway.

“Wait!” Emily shouted suddenly and quickly, stopping Charles, Lydia, and Betelgeuse from heading through the door and back home. “It’s only been a year since I died?”

“Uh...yeah, of course,” was the only thing Charles could say.

“What have you and Lydia been up to since my death?” Emily asked, a little curious and interested.

“Well,” Charles began, unsure of how to tell Emily of Delia, the Maitlands, and moving to Connecticut from New York City. The only other thing that he could say was, “it’s a long story.”

“A long story that I now want to hear,” Emily said.

Charles sighed. He couldn’t believe he had to tell Emily everything. “Okay,” he began, taking a deep breath. “After you died, I took Lydia to see a therapist but that didn’t work so I took Lydia to see Delia, a Life Coach I knew could help Lydia and she was very helpful.”

“Delia sounds like a wonderful woman,” Emily commented.

“She really is,” Charles said. He stopped, feeling guilty about saying something like that.

Emily took Charles’s hands in her own. “Charles,” she spoke softly. “It’s okay if you love Delia. I don’t mind. Lydia needs a mother and you need a wife.”

“I-it’s okay?” Charles spoke, surprised. He recomposed himself. “Can I tell the rest of the story?”

Emily smiled. “Go ahead.”

“Well,” Charles said with a slight laugh. “Six months ago, in the middle of June, I decided that it would be best to move Lydia, Delia, and myself out of New York City and up to Connecticut.”

“I told him you liked our old house,” Lydia inputted with an eye roll. Charles sent her a hard glare and Lydia let out a hearty laugh.

“Lydia’s right, Charles,” Emily spoke up when the living male refocused his attention back over towards her. “I did love our old house and yet you moved out of it.”

“I-I...” Charles sputtered. “I had to, Emily. It was filled with memories of you.”

“You moved out because everywhere you looked or went in that house, there was a reminder of me,” Emily said.

“I was trying to move on,” Charles countered. “Lydia...not so much.”

“What happened to Lydia?” Emily asked.

“What do you think happened to her,” Charles replied, gesturing to Lydia. Before Emily could come up with a response, Charles continued, “can I continue telling the rest of the story, Em?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

Charles let loose another breath. “Well, to make this short, lots of things happened after we moved.”

“Like what?” Emily asked, intrigued.

Charles did not know how to put what he was about to say into words. “Apparently our new house was haunted and only Lydia could see the ghosts,” Charles finally explained with a laugh, deciding to sum up the story in one sentence. Emily grew even more curious. “Delia and I weren’t able to see them until much much later,” Charles added, another laugh escaping his throat.

“Dad!” Lydia shouted from where she and Betelgeuse were standing. “Shouldn’t we be going now. It must be almost bedtime for me.”

“Right, right,” Charles said, standing up and joining Lydia and Betelgeuse. He turned to face Emily. “Well,” he said, “we better be going.”

“What about those other ghosts?” Emily asked. “What are they like?”

“The Maitlands?” Lydia asked and her late mother turned her attention towards her. Lydia continued, “they’re very nice and sweet and almost like second parents to me.”

“What happened to them?”Emily asked.

“Apparently the two of them fell through the floorboards of our house,” Charles explained.

“I watched them die!” Betelgeuse announced.

“Isn’t that stalking?” Emily asked, raising an eyebrow.

Betelgeuse chose not to answer that question.

“Ahem, I think it’s time we go,” Charles spoke up. “Goodbye, Em, I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too,” Emily replied, wiping a tear from her eye.

With that, Charles, Lydia, and Betelgeuse went through the door to the Living World and it closed behind them.

Emily went to do her own thing.

* * *

Back at the Maitland-Deetz house, Delia was about to head up to bed and the Maitlands were about to head back upstairs to the attic when a door opened up in a wall in the living room.

Charles, Lydia, and Betelgeuse stepped out of the door and Lydia immediately ran over to the Maitlands, giving them both a hug.

Charles embraced Delia and Betelgeuse sat himself down on the couch, watching the other five interact with each other.

Lydia, Betelgeuse, and Charles had a heck of a story to tell but would wait until tomorrow to tell it. For now...

...It was good to be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rather long (around 1.7k words) and the following chapters might not be as long but who knows.


	8. One Heck Of A Story

Early the next morning, the six of them sat together in the living room of the Maitland-Deetz house. Delia and the Maitlands, excited to hear of the trip that Lydia, Betelgeuse, and Charles took to the Netherworld, sat together on the floor. The remaining three members of the group — Lydia, Betelgeuse, and Charles — sat together on the couch. Well, only Lydia and Charles were sitting on the couch. Betelgeuse floated a few feet in the air above them, gazing down at Delia and the Maitlands.

“So,” Adam spoke up, putting an end to a few minutes of silence shared between the six of them. “Can you start with distracting us by setting all of the smoke detectors in the house off at once?” He had his gaze fixated, solely, on a now nervous Lydia.

She did not know what to say. Distracting all four of her parents by setting all the smoke detectors in the house off at once with Betelgeuse’s help and then proceeding to sneak off into the Netherworld with him now seemed like nothing but a mistake to Lydia. The teenager looked up. Betelgeuse had the exact same look on his face as she did and Lydia could tell that he was equally as nervous as she was.

When he received no response from Lydia, Adam chose to speak up again. “I think I asked you a question, Lydia.”

“Hold on,” was Lydia’s response. “Give me a moment to think up a response to it.”

It took a few minutes for Lydia to come up with a response to her ghost father’s question. The hardest part, however, was thinking about how to put it into words.

Eventually, Lydia said, “I’m sorry if we set all the smoke detectors in the house off at once. It was the only thing that Betelgeuse and I could think of that would work as a distraction. Just be lucky I didn’t set the house on fire this time.”

Adam sounded surprised. “I wasn’t expecting an apology just yet.” He turned to Charles. “Could you tell us what happened in the Netherworld?”

“Right, right,” the still living male said, choosing now to tell the story of the adventure he, Lydia, and Betelgeuse had in the Netherworld. “Well,” he continued, trying to remember the events of last night. “When I got there, I found Lydia and Betelgeuse sneaking through the Netherworld.”

“We didn’t notice him there at first but him coughing directed our attention to him,” Lydia added with a slight smirk directed at her dad.

He did not seem at all pleased with that and instead chose to continue telling the story from his perspective. “I told them we were going back and the only reaction I got from Lydia was her letting go of my hand and telling me that she wasn’t going back until she found and talked to Emily. That left me with no choice. I had to go with Lydia and Betelgeuse because I, too, wanted to have a chance to be able to find and see Emily again.”

“And did you?” Delia, Adam, and Barbara asked in unison.

“Oh yes.” Charles laughed. “It took us a while and we had to walk down a bunch of random hallways in the Netherworld and the three of us, luckily, avoided getting caught.”

“What’s she like?” Barbara asked.

“She’s a lot like you, Barbara,” Charles replied with a small smile. “It must be why Lydia bonded with you the most out of all of us.”

“Yeah,” Barbara said, looking directly at Lydia and the teenager smiled at her in return. “It must be.”

“I told her everything,” Charles chose to speak up, directing the attention of Delia and the Maitlands back over towards him, “from meeting Delia to moving here. I told her about this house, about the Maitlands, and how Lydia was the only one who could see them for a while after moving here.” He turned to Delia and smiled. “She told me that it was okay if I loved you. She didn’t mind. She said that Lydia needed a mother and I needed a wife.”

Delia couldn’t help but smile. “Aw...that’s so sweet of her to say that.”

* * *

Despite it being a whole day since the first anniversary of Emily’s death, Lydia still felt a little down. Perhaps even more than she did the day before. She was currently hanging out with Betelgeuse in her bedroom, looking at pictures of her dead mom in the photo album laying open on her bedroom floor.

Betelgeuse was concerned for her. He lay on his stomach on Lydia’s bedroom floor, gazing down at the same page of photos that Lydia was looking at.

Eventually, he gazed up at her and let out a cough and her attention focused away from the photo album on the floor in front of her and towards him. She gazed at him with a look ofconfusion and a small frown on her face. “Did you need something, Beej?” she asked her best demon friend.

He seemed to be zoning off a little, gazing away from Lydia and looking at absolutely nothing in particular. Lydia waved a hand in front of Betelgeuse’s eyes.

“Earth to Bj,” Lydia said in a confused tone of voice. “You there?”

At that, he seemed to snap out of it and refocused his attention back over towards Lydia. He shook his head from side to side in a very fast paced way. “H-huh?” he spoke, still confused.

“Did you need something, Betelgeuse?” Lydia asked a second time, seemingly relieved and happy that her best demon friend was okay.

“O-oh yeah.” Betelgeuse slapped a hand against his forehead in remembrance. “I’ve noticed that you are looking at pictures of your mom even though you found and had a long conversation with her last night.”

“Oh that.” Lydia closed her photo album and directed her attention towards Betelgeuse. “I know that, Betelgeuse. But I couldn’t help but look at photos of her. I know I got to see and talk to her last night but that just made me want to look at pictures of her. I’m guessing that this means I want to talk to her forever. I’m guessing that it means I want to see her again.”

“We’re not going back to the Netherworld, Scarecrow,” the demon in front of her stated as a matter-of-factly.

“And I know that, Betelgeuse!” Lydia shouted back to him as loudly as she possibly could.

Betelgeuse seemed to scoot back at how loud Lydia had just shouted at him, clear tears forming in his eyes that made the teenager regret shouting at him in the first place. As Lydia reached a hand out towards Betelgeuse, the latter disappeared in a flash of light.

But not before he told her, “I guess I’m going to hang out with Adam and Babs. See ya later, Scarecrow.”

Lydia was left sitting there, no words forming from her lips as she stared longingly at the spot where Betelgeuse was once laying. With little to no hesitation, she stood up, deciding now was the time to go spend time with her dad and look at more photos of Emily with him. If and only if he was up to doing something like that.

Lydia sighed, made her way over towards her bedroom door, exited her room, and closed the door behind her.


	9. A Ghostly Conversation

Betelgeuse appeared in the middle of the attic of the Maitland-Deetz house in a bright flash of light and both Maitlands looked up at him in confusion. Adam set down the paintbrush he was using and Barbara put a bookmark in the book she was reading before closing it and putting it down on a table next to the rocking chair she was sitting in.

Both ghosts, concerned for their demon friend, approached him. Betelgeuse looked like he’d just had an argument with Lydia, which was true but not true at the same time. He’d just told her that he wasn’t going to take her back to the Netherworld and she’d shouted at him.

“Betelgeuse?” Barbara asked calmly and quietly, placing a hand on the demon’s shoulder. “Is everything okay?”

He chose not to answer, his hair turning a light Blue. And that’s when Barbara started to notice faint tears dripping down the demon’s face.

“Mr. Betelgeuse?” Barbara tried again. “Is everything okay?”

“Does it look like everything’s okay, B-Town?” Betelgeuse finally found himself asking the female ghost. “Lydia yelled at me.”

“Why did Lydia yell at you, Mr. Geuse?” Adam asked.

“I...uh...” Betelgeuse started, coming to a loss for words. He sat himself down on the attic floor. “I told her that I wasn’t going to take her back to the Netherworld and she yelled that she knew that to me. It kinda upset me.” At that, Betelgeuse’s hair became a brighter shade of Blue.

Barbara turned to Adam, concerned and confused. He shrugged in response and Barbara refocused her attention back over towards Betelgeuse.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to yell at you, Betelgeuse,” Barbara calmly explained to the demon sitting on the floor in front of her and Adam. “But did you ever consider that she may have had a reason for doing so?”

“I didn’t think about it,” Betelgeuse finally said after a few minutes of silence shared between all three dead people.

Adam and Barbara smiled at Betelgeuse and the demon stood up, making his way over towards the attic door. He called over his shoulder, “I think I’m going to find and spend some time with Lyds. I’ll see you guys some other time!”

“Okay!” they shouted back.

Betelgeuse opened the door to the attic before going through it and closing it behind him. Satisfied, the Maitlands went back to what they were doing before their conversation with Betelgeuse.

* * *

Betelgeuse found Lydia in the lounge, watching one of her favorite ghost hunting shows. The photo album he’d watched her go through was nowhere in sight, leading Betelgeuse to guess that Lydia had left it in her dad’s office because Charles was much to busy to be spending time with her for the moment.

He was adamant at staying completely quiet in order to make sure that his best human friend didn’t notice that he was there with her. One slight noise from him would surprise the teenager.

That’s when an idea popped into the demon’s mind.

With little to no hesitation, Betelgeuse turned himself invisible and wrapped his arms around Lydia before floating up into the air and taking the teenager with him. Lydia’s eyes widened in surprise and she looked down towards the living room below her.

It then hit her. With a simple eye roll and a few laughs, she spoke up knowingly, “Beej? What are you doing?”

That was that. He became visible to her again and snickered a little. “Nothing?” he teased playfully as he began to tickle the teenager nonstop. “I just wanted to spend some more time with my bestest human friend ever.”

“Okay, okay, we can spend some more time together. Just stop tickling me and put me down first,” Lydia said in between giggles.

That was all Betelgeuse needed to hear. He gently placed a Lydia down on the couch and sat himself down on the couch next to her. He hoped Lydia didn’t mind if he rested an arm around her shoulder so that’s what he did. Lydia, a small smile appearing on her face, placed a hand on top of Betelgeuse’s.

“Betelgeuse?” Lydia spoke up a few minutes later, directing the demon’s attention over towards her. “What else did you want to do?”

It was clear she had run out of ideas and the ghost hunting show they were watching had long since ended. God? How long had Betelgeuse not been paying attention for? He focused his attention back over towards Lydia, noting that the teenager was now looking up at him with a look of concern in her eyes.

“Betelgeuse?” Lydia repeated.

It took the demon a while to think of something the two of them could do together. “I was thinking,” he began and Lydia listened curiously. “That maybe we could go back upstairs to your room and continue looking at that photo album from earlier. Speaking of which, where did you put it? I don’t see it anywhere.”

“The photo album that we were looking at earlier,” Lydia said, trying her best to remember where she’d put it. Then it came to her. “I left it in my dad’s office after he told me that he was too busy to spend time with me. C’mon, let’s go see if it’s where I left it.”

Lydia stood up, turning off the tv, and so did Betelgeuse, the two of them exiting the living room and making their way over towards Charles’s office.

The office door was slightly ajar, paperwork covering the desk situated in the center of the room. Charles, a pen in hand, sat at his desk and wrote away on a piece of paper sitting in front of him. He paid no attention to Lydia and Betelgeuse as he worked. At least until Lydia coughed to grab his attention.

Instantly, Charles stopped writing and focused his attention over towards Lydia and Betelgeuse.

“Lydia, Betelgeuse,” he spoke up out of surprise. “Did you guys want to look at something?”

When Lydia noticed that the photo album she’d left on her dad’s desk was nowhere in sight, she looked to her dad in confusion. “Dad?” she asked. “Where is the photo album I left on your desk?”

“Oh that,” Charles said, looking slightly to the side. “I put it away because I thought you were done with it. I can get it back out if you-.” He was cut short by Lydia.

“Nono, it’s fine. We can look at it some other time.”

Before Charles had a chance to respond, Lydia, dragging Betelgeuse behind her, rushed out of her dad’s office and upstairs to her room.

Charles shrugged and went back to his work.

* * *

Lydia glanced out the window of her bedroom and looked outside. What else was she going to do? That’s when an idea popped into her head. “Hey, Beej?” she asked, turning her attention over towards her best demon friend. “How about we go look for some haunted locations within the town? How does that sound?”

“That sounds like a great idea,” was Betelgeuse’s response. He stood up and went to stand next to Lydia. “Let’s go do that right now.”

Before Lydia could even respond, a flash of light appeared around her and Betelgeuse and off the two of them went in search for reportedly haunted locations within the town of Winter River.

All was quiet in Lydia’s bedroom save for a few knocks on the door.

“Lydia? Betelgeuse? Are you guys in here?” Shouted the frantic voice of Charles on the other side of Lydia’s bedroom door. “I’d like to talk to you guys.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Another day where I publish two chapters in one go? That’s incredible.
> 
> On a side note, I know one of the interactions between Lydia and Betelgeuse may make it seem like I ship them but this is not a Beetlebabes Fanfiction (nor will it ever be). That interaction is merely the two of them being best friends and not lovers.


	10. Ghost Of A Girl

Adam, Barbara, and Delia all sat on the couch in the living room, watching on with worry as Charles paced around the living room. The living male’s eyes were focused on the ground and he had a hand resting against his chin. All four adults were trying their best to figure out where Lydia and Betelgeuse might have gone this time.

“But they couldn’t have gone back into the Netherworld though, Charles,” Delia said. “As you said, there was no trace of a door to the Netherworld in the wall of Lydia’s bedroom yet it was empty.”

“I know. They didn’t leave any indication that they were going anywhere,” Charles said with a sigh.

“But,” Adam pointed out. “They didn’t seem to distract us this time.”

“You’re right,” Charles said, something suddenly coming to his mind. He turned to face Delia and addressed her, “Delia, do you mind coming with me to look for Lydia and Betelgeuse? I have a feeling I know where they might have gone.”

“And where is that?” Delia asked, standing up and joining Charles over by the front door of the house.

“I feel like they might have gone outside to explore the town,” Charles explained with another sigh. He turned to address the Maitlands, “we won’t be gone for long.”

“Alright!” the Maitlands chorused.

Charles turned and followed Delia out the front door of the house, closing it behind him. As the sounds of a car starting up were heard, the Maitlands went back upstairs to the attic to do their own things.

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse didn’t get too far out into the town of Winter River. They reappeared on the top of a hill on the edge of the town in a flash of light. The view from the hill they were now standing on was mesmerizing. Lydia could swear she could see the whole entire town from where she was standing.

“Wow!” Lydia exclaimed with wide eyes and a huge smile on her face, turning to look up at Betelgeuse. “This view is amazing, Betelgeuse. But I don’t think we’ll be able to find any ghosts here. I was thinking maybe we could go somewhere with a history to it. Like the town library or my school.”

“Did you just say you wanted to go back in time, Lyds?” her best demon friend asked in a teasing tone of voice.

“No, Betelgeuse, I did not say that I wanted to go back in time.” Lydia began to laugh a little. “I said that I wanted to go somewhere with a history. Could you take me to the library or my school. There are bound to be some ghosts in either of those places. How about we go check my school for ghosts first. I heard rumors of a student that died on school grounds the same week the school first opened. School may be closed for a monthlong winter break but I’m sure you can teleport us inside the school so we could look for the ghost of the student that died on school grounds.”

“Off to your school we go then, Scarecrow,” Betelgeuse said with a playful smirk plastered on his face. With a quick snap of Betelgeuse’s fingers, the two of them disappeared in a flash of light and were on their way to Lydia’s school.

* * *

Charles and Delia returned to the Maitland-Deetz house without Lydia and Betelgeuse and the moment the Deetz couple walked through the front door of the house, the Maitlands got in their faces and started talking over one another.

“Did you find them?” asked Barbara.

“You did find them, right?” Adam spurted out.

“Woah, woah,” a surprised Charles said as he and Delia backed away from the Maitlands. “Calm down, you guys. To answer your questions: No, we did not find them. Although we tried. Delia and I drove all over the town. There were no traces of either of them.”

The Maitlands’ faces fell at the sound of that and they both turned, heading into the living room of the house. Left with little to no choice, Charles and Delia both decided to go ahead and follow their ghostly friends right into the living room.

* * *

In another flash of light, Lydia and Betelgeuse appeared inside of the school that Lydia went to. Miss. Shannon’s School for Girls, with it’s brick interior, definitely did not look or feel like it was haunted. But, in truth, it was in fact haunted. But not just by the same female student that had died on school grounds the week the school opened in the 1850’s. There were reports of at least two to four other ghosts of former female students and a teacher of the school that haunted it.

One student had committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the school building (Betelgeuse was glad he stopped Lydia from jumping off the roof of her house and suffering a similar fate to that student). Another drowned in a lake that used to be behind the school but has since dried up. No one really knew how the student who died on school grounds had died or how one of the teachers of the school had died. It was nothing but a mystery and a rumor to the current teachers and students of the school.

Lydia began to walk down the hallway she and Betelgeuse appeared in, Betelgeuse following close behind her. Lydia figured the best place to start would be the location of the student who’d drowned. Who knew, maybe her ghost would be there, maybe her ghost would already be in the Netherworld. The only way Lydia could really make sure would be to check around that area.

It was getting darker and darker the more the two best friends made their way over towards the door leading out to the back of the school. Lydia looked up at the lights of the hallway before turning and focusing her attention over towards Betelgeuse.

“Betelgeuse,” she said. “Could you please turn all the lights on? I can’t see.”

“C’mon, Scarecrow,” Betelgeuse teased. “You can’t be this scared. I thought you were fine with it being dark during our brief three-day stint scaring people who came up to the house.”

Lydia let out a fake laugh. “Haha. Very funny, Beej.”

“I was being serious,” was all Betelgeuse could say as he held a hand over where his heart would be.

“I know,” Lydia said in a teasing voice. “I was too.”

They eventually reached the door that led out to the back of the school and Lydia tried and failed to push it open. After a third attempt, Lydia gave up and turned to look up at Betelgeuse.

“Could you teleport us outside, Betelgeuse?” Lydia asked as she gave her best demon friend puppy dog eyes.

Betelgeuse did as he was asked and soon both he and Lydia were standing outside. Lydia scanned the area, looking for signs of a ghost of a student who had drowned, and turned back to Betelgeuse when she found nothing.

“Welp,” she said with a shrug. “I found nothing. Let’s just go home and try again at the library tomorrow, Betelgeuse.”

Betelgeuse was about to teleport himself and Lydia back to the Maitland-Deetz house when the two of them heard a faint “e-excuse me?”

They turned to face the source of the voice they heard and came face to face with the completely White figure of a girl dressed in clothes from the 1950’s. Her hair, which Lydia guessed was originally Blonde in color, hung damp at her shoulders. She was gazing at Lydia and Betelgeuse with nervous eyes.

“Excuse me yourself,” Betelgeuse said, approaching the female ghost that stood in front of him and Lydia. “But why aren’t you in the Netherworld?”

“What is this ‘Netherworld’?” the female ghost asked curiously.

Betelgeuse groaned. A ghost who had never heard of or even been to the Netherworld? He knew that, if she had heard of the Netherworld, she would most certainly be a civil servant there. Maybe this ghost did read through the Handbook for the Recently Deceased when she died but had accidentally skipped over the part of the book that said “all ghosts must proceed directly to the Netherworld”.

To make sure, Betelgeuse summoned a a Handbook for the Recently Deceased out of thin air, opened it straight to the first page, and showed it to the ghost in front of him.

“All ghosts must proceed directly to the Netherworld,” she read out loud as her eyes scanned the page. She focused her attention towards Lydia and Betelgeuse. “Huh,” she said surprised. “I guess I skipped that page when I found that very same book.”

“You guess,” Betelgeuse said as he, Lydia, and the female ghost walked over to the back wall of the school. He produced a Green chalk out of thin air then used it to draw a door onto the school wall and he knocked on it three times in a row. “Off you go,” he said as he turned his attention back towards the now confused ghost.

The ghost began to make her way over towards the open door and then stopped, suddenly remembering that she forgot to do something. In a hurry, she turned to face Lydia and Betelgeuse again.

“Oh, before I forget, my name’s Elizabeth.”

“Nice to meet you, Elizabeth,” Lydia said with a smile. “My name’s Lydia and this is Betelgeuse.”

“Are you going to the Netherworld or what?” Betelgeuse asked, raising an eyebrow at Elizabeth.

“Beej!” Lydia elbowed the demon.

“Sorry,” he mouthed to Lydia.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Elizabeth said before turning and walking through the door. It closed behind her, disappearing as if it wasn’t really there.

“Let’s go back home,” Lydia said. “I’m tired. Let’s look for some ghosts who didn’t go to the Netherworld at the library tomorrow. I hope Elizabeth gets seen by Miss Argentina soon. Imagine how much trouble she’s going to get in for being over six decades late.”

“I can.” Betelgeuse smirked. With a snap of his fingers, he and Lydia disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

They appeared in the center of the living room not even five minutes later. Lydia looked around and finally spotted all four of her parents, equally angered looks on their faces, glaring at her and Betelgeuse.

“You guys,” Barbara chided, “are in so much trouble.”

Lydia and Betelgeuse hung their heads. They didn’t need to be told that, they knew it was going to happen from the very moment they appeared in the house.

“Where were you guys anyways?” Charles asked, raising an eyebrow at Lydia and Betelgeuse. “Lydia, I went up to your room because I wanted to talk to you and Betelgeuse and neither one of you were there.”

Lydia and Betelgeuse looked at one another before refocusing their attention back towards Charles. “Uh,” Lydia said. “We were at my school looking for ghosts that never made it to the Netherworld.”

“And did you guys find any?” Adam asked, now curious.

“Yeah,” Lydia said. “One. Her name’s Elizabeth. Beej and I can tell you more about her at...” Lydia glanced over at the clock, “...lunch.”

All four of Lydia’s parents couldn’t wait to hear more about Elizabeth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I told myself that I wasn’t going to publish another chapter today because I published two chapters yesterday, but here we are! This just has to be the longest chapter I’ve written so far for this story (around 1.8k words). The rest of the chapters won’t really (hopefully) be as long as this one is but we’ll see.


	11. A Chance to Talk

Twelve in the afternoon, lunchtime, the Deetzes, the Maitlands, and Betelgeuse were sitting at the table in the dining room. Much like they do at every meal, the Maitlands just watched the Deetzes eat. Betelgeuse, on the other hand, just played with his fingers — paying little to no attention to the rest of the family.

Barbara decided to strike up conversation about the ghost that Lydia and Betelgeuse had encountered earlier during their little trip into town to look for ghosts. “So,” Barbara said with a clear smile on her face. “What is this ‘Elizabeth’ like?”

Lydia put down her fork and focused her attention on her ghost mother. “Elizabeth seemed to be a little shy, a little nervous, around Betelgeuse and I but she sounded like she was warming up to the two of us by the time Betelgeuse drew that door to the Netherworld in the back wall of my school for her to go through. She died in the 1950’s so she was like a literal six decades late. By the way, Betelgeuse and I were planning on going back out after lunch and looking for more ghosts in the town who never made it to the Netherworld. I hope that’s okay with you guys?”

“Oh no, you’re not, young lady,” her dad said sternly. “You’re still in trouble for going out to do that earlier today and besides, I wanted to have a chance to talk to you about something. It’s important. And I think Betelgeuse should take part in this conversation as well. This important thing concerns him too. Talk after lunch?”

Lydia mumbled something in agreement.

Her dad could not hear her, however. “What was that you said, Lydia?”

“I said okay! Fine, dad!”

* * *

Charles decided to have the conversation between Lydia, Betelgeuse, and himself in Lydia’s bedroom. He closed the door to the room and sat down next to Lydia on the latter’s bed. Betelgeuse sat himself on the floor in front of the two of them. Charles placed a hand on Lydia’s back and the teenager looked up at her dad.

“What did you want to talk about, dad?” asked Lydia.

“Yeah?” Betelgeuse asked, confused. “Why does this concern me exactly?”

“Lydia, I wanted to talk to you about the amount of time you are spending with me and Betelgeuse versus the amount of time you are spending with Delia and the Maitlands,” Charles explained with a sigh. “Betelgeuse, this concerns you too because you really need to talk to Lydia about this as well.”

“I’m spending time with Delia and the Maitlands,” Lydia said, surprised. “Honest. I literally just saw and talked to them at lunch.”

“Lydia, first, Barbara told me that you told her you didn’t need Delia’s help. Second, when we were spending time together outside, you yelled at the Maitlands and told them that you wanted to spend some time with me. Remember, I had you apologize to them for saying that.”

“I know,” Lydia said sadly, focusing her attention to her bedroom floor.

Betelgeuse hadn’t said much of anything and Charles turned to face him. “Betelgeuse?” he asked. “I noticed that you have not said much to Lydia or to me? Would you like to?”

“No,” was all Betelgeuse said.

“Well then,” Charles said, standing up. “I guess that this conversation is over then.” He was about to leave Lydia’s bedroom when he suddenly remembered something. He turned to face Lydia, who was still sitting on her bed and looking at him, and addressed her, “Lydia, do you promise to me that you will, at least, spend some of your time with Delia and the Maitlands? You can’t keep on spending the majority of your time with Betelgeuse and I.”

“I promise,” Lydia grumbled.

Charles smiled and exited Lydia’s bedroom, closing the door behind him and leaving Lydia and Betelgeuse alone for the time being. He hoped, no, he prayed that his daughter would at least spend some one on one time with Delia, Adam, and Barbara. She did promise him she would, after all.

Little did he know, she was still not really ready to spend time with the Maitlands and Delia.

* * *

Charles made his way downstairs and into the living room of the house, spotting Adam and Barbara sitting there and looking at what appeared to be an old photo album of theirs together. Delia was still in the kitchen area, washing the dishes.

“What are you guys looking at?” Charles asked, approaching the Maitlands.

They stopped gazing at their photo album and looked up at Charles, smiling. “Our wedding album,” said Barbara. “You know, sometimes we miss having our pictures taken. It makes me upset that we died too early.”

The three of them gazed at a picture sitting on the wall across from them, the very same picture that Lydia had developed of Adam and Barbara and framed to be hung up just in time for Mother’s Day. The Maitlands looked at that picture on a daily basis. It was one of their favorites and the only picture taken of them following their deaths. It was a one of a kind picture in their eyes.

“So, anyway,” Adam suddenly said, deciding to change the topic. “How did your conversation with Lydia and Betelgeuse go, Charles? Did you manage to talk about whatever it was on your mind? What was it?”

“Oh yes,” Charles replied. “I think that conversation went well. It was about her spending more time with me and Betelgeuse and less time with you guys and Delia. Have you guys started to notice how little time Lydia has spent with you since yesterday?”

Adam and Barbara nodded. “Oh yes,” they replied in unison with Barbara adding, “it makes us upset that she has been spending less time with us. I’m beginning to worry and wonder that the longer she spends no time with us the more likely she won’t be able to see us anymore.”

“Wow...” commented Charles, a look of surprise and worry on his face. “Now that...is a problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters after this may or may not be a little bit longer (probs around 2k words or more).


	12. Worry-Free

Barbara and Adam had gone back to the attic, leaving Charles and Delia to spend some much needed time together in the living room. Adam worked quietly on his model whilst Barbara read in her favorite rocking chair. That is, until a question about Lydia potentially being unable to see them popped into Barbara’s mind. She placed her favorite bookmark in her book, closed it, and focused her attention on Adam.

“Adam, honey?” she asked nervously, directing his attention over towards her. “What would you do if Lydia was suddenly unable to see us?”

“What would I do?” Adam responded, putting down a paintbrush and walking over towards Barbara. “Well, for starters, I would wait to talk to her when she apologizes to us for spending less of her time with us. Would you, Barb, honey?”

“Yes, I would,” was Barbara’s response.

Adam caressed her transparent cheek and went back to working on his model. Barbara went back to reading.

Neither of them really wanted Lydia to be unable to see them. They hoped it would never happen. They didn’t know, and weren’t prepared for, what would happen if Lydia was suddenly unable to see the two of them.

* * *

Lydia was hungry. Careful not to disturb Betelgeuse, who was currently in the middle of inspecting an insect Lydia had captured from the backyard of the house and was now keeping as a pet in her bedroom for some odd, and apparently unknown, reason, she quietly crept out of her bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen to grab herself a snack and a drink.

In the living room, she saw her dad and Delia sitting together on the couch watching the tv together and she decided not to disturb them either. She quietly turned and tip toed into the kitchen.

Creeping back up the stairs to her bedroom with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk in her hands, Lydia carefully set them down on her bedside table and went to close her bedroom door. She looked around for Betelgeuse and saw him in the exact same location and position as he was earlier, still looking at Lydia’s pet bug. Lydia coughed to grab her best demon friend’s attention and he turned to look at her.

“Lyds?” he asked. “Where’d you go? I turned to ask you a question about your insect and you weren’t there.”

“Downstairs, getting myself a snack,” was Lydia’s immediate response. She sat herself down on her bed and grabbed herself a cookie and her glass of milk. “What was your question, Beej?”

“Why does your insect have no wings or legs?”

Lydia rolled her eyes. “Because it’s a worm, Bj. Worms don’t exactly have wings or legs. They’re like Sandworms...but smaller.”

“Okay. So do normal worms eat...ghosts?”

“No, Beej.” Lydia let out a sigh, then a laugh. “Normal worms do not eat ghosts.”

* * *

Charles turned off the tv and went to work in his office for the time being, leaving Delia to do her own thing. The Life Coach noticed that the pantry door was open and went to close it before going upstairs to her and Charles’s bedroom to find something to do.

“Note to self,” Delia quietly told herself as she headed up the stairs. “Remind Lydia to close the pantry door the next time she gets herself a snack.”

Lydia did not know this, but Charles and Delia had heard her getting herself a snack from the kitchen.

* * *

Adam finished his current work on his model of Winter River and he and Barbara went downstairs. They were initially surprised to find the bottom floor of the house empty, no sign of the Deetzes or Betelgeuse anywhere, so they shrugged it off and went to find at least one of the three currently living members of the family or Betelgeuse.

They’d initially wanted to find and talk to Charles about something but unfortunately for the two of them, the living male was currently talking on his phone to someone so the Maitlands went to find Lydia instead, praying that she could still see them.

They found the teenager in her bedroom, eating cookies and chatting to Betelgeuse about something. The Maitlands decided to stay completely still, both of their bodies phased halfway through Lydia’s bedroom door. At least until Betelgeuse looked in their direction and pointed them out to Lydia.

The Maitlands both froze, hoping and praying that Lydia would be able to still see the two of them. Lydia looked in the Maitlands’ direction as well, spotted them (relieving the two ghosts), and waved at them.

“Hey, Adam. Hey, Barbara,” Lydia said with a smile. “You guys can come in if you want. You don’t need to be phased through half of my bedroom wall and looking as though I can’t actually see you. Wouldn’t that be ridiculous?” The teenager laughed quietly. “Me? Not being able to see you guys? Like that would ever happen.”

“It might happen if you stop spending time with us altogether, Lydia,” Barbara was quick to point out.

They floated fully into Lydia’s bedroom, sitting down on either side of Lydia on the teenager’s bed. They each placed a hand on Lydia’s shoulders.

“So? What are you guys talking about?” Adam asked, curious.

Betelgeuse had since sat himself back down in front of Lydia’s bed.

“Oh, about Lydia’s pet worm,” Betelgeuse said and the Maitlands focused their attention on him. “Lydia’s telling me worms have no wings and/or legs and don’t eat ghosts.”

“Sandworms and regular worms are two completely different creatures, Betelgeuse!” the Maitlands chorused.

Betelgeuse rolled his eyes. “I knew that,” he said.

“So, Lydia, did you want to do anything with us? We could perhaps look through some of our old photo albums. You have to be interested in what Babs and I were like back before our deaths.”

“Maybe later,” Lydia grumbled.

“Or,” Barbara began. “How about right now?”

“Okay!” Lydia finally said. “But only if dad and Betelgeuse can look through those albums with us.”

“That’s a great idea. And Delia could too if she wanted. Wouldn’t it be nice? The six of us looking through old photo albums?”

“Yay!” was all Lydia could say, her tone of voice a little bit sarcastic.

* * *

The six of them had gathered together on the couch in the living room, piles upon piles of photo albums containing over thousands and thousands of pictures of the Maitlands prior to their deaths. Pictures of them from their childhoods to pictures from the wedding album they’d let Charles look through with them much earlier.

Lydia picked up a photo album with a Red cover and opened it up, coming face to face with a page containing four pictures of what appeared to either be a baby Barbara or a Baby Adam.

She turned to the Maitlands and showed them the page of the album she’d picked up.

“Hm,” Barbara said, taking a look at it. “Those definitely look like pictures of baby Adam. That is you as a baby, right?” she asked her husband.

“That is indeed!” Adam commented. “My mom always told me I was a very fussy baby.”

“My dad always said the same about me,” Barbara said with a slight laugh.

“Well,” Charles said, standing up. “Since we all seem to be looking at baby pictures rightnow, why don’t I go fetch some photo albums containing pictures of Lydia when she was a baby.”

“Dad, no!” Lydia said, embarrassed.

As Charles left to go find out and fetch photo albums containing pictures of a young Lydia, the Maitlands magicked away all their photo albums in order to make room for all the Deetz albums.

Charles returned a while later, carrying what appeared to be at least ten photo albums in his arms and he placed them all in a pile on the coffee table.

Barbara picked up one and began skimming through it.

“Wow, Lydia!” she commented, stopping on a page in the middle of the album and turning to Lydia. “You had Blonde, long hair when you were younger??”

“That was then, this is now,” Lydia said, patting her short, Black hair. “Besides, I like my hair the way it is now. Short and Black.”

“So? What if one day, you get tired of the way your hair looks and you decide to go back to the way it once was?” Adam asked.

“Yeah, right!” Lydia said with a laugh. “Like that’ll ever happen.”

“But it might,” Barbara said with a wink.

“But it won’t,” Lydia grumbled.

By now, Lydia had gotten tired of looking at all of her old photo albums and she decided to head back upstairs to her bedroom. Betelgeuse followed closely behind her, wanting to spend some time with her.

Downstairs, all four adults decided to continue looking through all of the photos of a younger Lydia.

“It’s nice to see that Lydia is spending time with you guys at least,” commented Charles as he looked at Delia, Adam, and Barbara.

“I know,” Adam said. “And I’m even more happy that Lydia can still see us.”

“When did Lydia decide to cut her hair short and dye it Black, Charles?” Barbara asked, skimming through yet another photo album that she’d picked up.

“Not too long after Emily died,” was the response.

* * *

Upstairs, in Lydia’s bedroom, Betelgeuse sat on the floor and watched Lydia as she paced around the room. The teen’s face was completely Red and she looked a little bit angry.

“I can’t believe my dad would go and grab my old photo albums to show to Delia and the Maitlands!” Lydia growled, clenching her fists. “I would much rather prefer that he and I spend some one on one time together looking at pictures of me when I was younger in his office.”

“But, Lydia!” Betelgeuse whined and the teenager stopped pacing around her bedroom, turning her attention towards him. “I got to look at pictures of you when you were younger too and I’d have to admit, you were a very adorable baby.”

“Oh, and would you prefer me with long, Blonde hair or short, Black hair, Betelgeuse?” Lydia asked, raising an eyebrow at her best demon friend and folding her arms.

“Hm, let me think,” Betelgeuse said, thinking quietly to himself. “While you look adorbs with your current Black hair, Scarecrow, I’d much rather prefer a version of you with Blonde hair.”

“Gee, thanks, Betelgeuse,” Lydia said with a groan.

“You’re very welcome, Scarecrow,” Betelgeuse said, leaping at Lydia and tackling her to the ground before beginning to tickle her.

“Betelgeuse,” Lydia laughed in an attempt to push his hand away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And...here we go again. Yet another day where I publish two chapters instead of one.
> 
> On a side note: this is officially the longest Fanfiction I’ve ever written on this website!


	13. Childhood Stories and Sneaking Out

Betelgeuse was laying on top of Lydia’s bed, fast asleep and snoring away. Lydia herself sat next to her bed and watched her best demon friend closely as he slept. She knew dead people didn’t need to sleep or even eat so it was unusual to see Betelgeuse sleeping.

She did not want to disturb him, instead choosing to sneak downstairs and see if her dad, Delia, and the Maitlands were still looking at those pictures of her when she was younger or if they’d since stopped doing that and had split up and gone off to do their own things.

To her surprise, she entered the living room to find that all four of her parents were still looking at her photo albums and she quietly went to creep back up the stairs and back into her bedroom to see if Betelgeuse was still asleep.

But before she could, however, her dad looked up from the photo album that he was showing the Maitlands and spotted her. With a smile on his face, he called out to Lydia,

“Hey, Lydia, sweetheart, come look at your photos with us again! Adam and Barbara would like you to tell them some stories from your childhood!”

“Do I have to?” Lydia let out a groan.

“Yes, Lydia,” her dad said in a stern tone of voice, raising an eyebrow at her.

Lydia let out another groan, turning and heading back down the stairs from where she’d been standing on them when her dad asked her to rejoin them in looking at her photos. She sat herself in between her dad and Barbara, folding her arms and a scowl flashed across her face.

Barbara levitated a photo album down in front of Lydia, asking, “Lydia, could you tell me about this?”

The teen looked down at the picture her ghost mother was pointing at.

To her surprise, it was the picture of the younger, Blonde version of her and her mom from the time her mom decided to dress herself up as a ghost and play around with her. The very same picture she and her dad were looking at the day before.

All Lydia could say was, “that’s just a picture of a younger me and my dead mom dressed as a ghost. Nothing too important or special about that photograph.”

“C’mon, Lydia.” Barbara let out a quiet laugh. “There’s got to be more to the story behind this picture than what you just told me.” She turned to look at Charles and asked, “could you perhaps tell me the storybehind this picture, considering you were the one who took it by the looks of it.”

“Of course,” Charles replied with a flash of a smile. He began the story with, “it was nearing Halloween and Lydia’s eighth birthday.”

Lydia sighed as she rested a hand against her forehead and leaned back in her spot on the couch.

Charles continued, “a ghost was Emily’s choice of Halloween costume that year. She wanted to try it on and, to mess around with Lydia and I, she threw it over her head and started acting like a scary ghost. It amused me just as much as it amused Lydia.”

“Can I go upstairs now?” Lydia asked, het tone indicating to all four of her parents that she was tired and desperately wanted to go and do something else. Lydia waited for an answer. Hopefully it would be a ‘yes’.

It wasn’t.

“Not quite yet, Lydia,” Adam said. “I’d like you to tell me about this.” He pointed at a picture of a paint covered Lydia in the photo album that he was looking through.

“There, I was just covered completely in paint. That’s all. Can I please go upstairs now?”

“No, Lydia!”

Lydia just refused to take that as an answer. Standing up, she let out a breath and sauntered up the stairs to her bedroom against her parents’ pleas and warnings for her to come back downstairs and continue looking at pictures with them. Those, she just ignored and drowned out.

Downstairs, all four adults gave up shouting for Lydia to get back downstairs and continue to look at the photo albums with them.

“Can you tell me about this picture, Charles?” Adam asked, pointing at the same picture he was looking at earlier.

“Sure,” was the response.

* * *

Lydia closed her bedroom door and turned to find that Betelgeuse was still fast asleep on her bed. Now, she needed to wake the demon up. She quietly crept over to her bed from her door and poked at Betelgeuse.

“Beej,” she said in a voice as softly as she possibly could. “Are you going to wake up or what?”

That did it. Betelgeuse woke up, sat upright in Lydia’s bed, and stared, his eyes blurry, at her.

“Scarecrow?” he asked, his voice a little drowsy. “How long was I asleep for?”

“Two hours, Bj,” was Lydia’s response. She moved to open her window and she looked out of it at the view of the town of Winter River. “I have a plan,” Lydia continued, a smirk appearing on her face.

“And what exactly is that plan of yours, Lydia?” Betelgeuse asked the teen, moving to stand next to her at the window she was looking out of.

Her smirk became a wicked smile. “Let’s go back out into town and look for more ghosts who never made it to the Netherworld.”

“Won’t all of your parents get mad at you for sneaking out of the house again, Lydia?” Betelgeuse, slightly concerned, asked as he turned his attention towards the teenager.

“No!” Lydia said suddenly, turning her attention away from her window and towards Betelgeuse. “They won’t notice we’re gone this time. Let’s not distract them and all should be fine by the time we get back here.”

“Alrighty then,” Betelgeuse said after a few minutes of silence shared between the two of them. “Let’s go back out, find, and get more ghosts to the Netherworld.

Betelgeuse snapped his fingers and he and Lydia disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

Downstairs, in the living room, Charles, Delia, and the Maitlands had pretty much looked through all of the photo albums containing pictures of Lydia and Charles stood up, deciding to put them away. Before he did, however, he turned to the rest of the adults.

“I’m going to put these away,” Charles quickly said. “Then I’m going upstairs to check on Lydia.”

The others nodded and Charles went to put the photo albums he found out away in his office.

He was soon on the upper floor of the house. Standing in front of Lydia’s bedroom door, he took a quiet, deep breath before knocking on it a few times. “Lydia?!” he called out. “Betelgeuse?! Are you guys in here?!”

When he received no response, he let out a groan. “Not again,” he said.


	14. Only Getting Into More Trouble

“And are you sure they disappeared without a trace again, Charles?” Barbara asked, a worried look in her eyes.

The living male nodded. All he had wanted to do was check up on Lydia and Betelgeuse and make sure they were doing okay. He hadn’t quite anticipated on them going back out, especially since Lydia had gotten in trouble much earlier in the day for going out.

He, like the rest of the adults of the Maitland-Deetzes, knew they had to let Lydia know that she was in even more trouble than she was earlier when she returned home. If that was going to be soon.

“Delia,” Charles said, turning to the aforementioned Life Coach. “Do you mind coming with me to look for signs of Lydia and Betelgeuse in town?”

“No,” was the response. “I think we’d rather wait for them to get home. I hope that’s okay with you.”

“I guess it is,” Charles said, sitting himself down on the couch and switching on the television.

They hoped it wouldn’t take long for Lydia and Betelgeuse to return home from their second trip out into the town of Winter River in one day.  
  


* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse appeared on the same hill overlooking the town that they had appeared on that same morning. The view was still the same. Winter River looked tiny from where they were standing. Lydia looked out towards the town, thinking about where she and Betelgeuse should go to look for more ghosts.

“We could go to my school again,” Lydia said, resting a hand against her chin. “But we already found a ghost there this morning. I think we should go to the library. I’m sure there’s a ghost or two there. What do you think, Beej?” Lydia asked, turning to face her best demon friend. “Do you think we could stop by the local library to look for ghosts?”

Betelgeuse just nodded, snapping his fingers again. Within a second, they disappeared in another flash of light.

* * *

Having gotten bored of watching the tv and waiting for Lydia and Betelgeuse to return home, Adam, Barbara, Charles, and Delia had gone off to do their own things. Charles was working in his office, Delia was in the bedroom she shared with Charles, sorting through her crystals, and the Maitlands were in the attic (Adam was working some more on his model and Barbara continued on with her reading).

Putting her bookmark in her book and closing it, Barbara turned her attention over towards her husband and let out a quiet sigh.

“What is it, Barbara, hon?” Adam asked, halting work on his model and looking over towards her.

“This is the second time in one day in which Lydia and Betelgeuse have headed out to town,” Barbara quietly said. “Hopefully they decide not to do something like that again.”

“I hope that too, Barbara, honey,” Adam replied, turning his attention back towards his model and continuing working on it.

Barbara nodded, going back to her reading.

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse appeared in a flash of light right smack dab in the middle of the local library. Dozens of people, some around Lydia’s age, surrounded them. They appeared to all be reading quietly, paying little to no attention to the girl and the demon that had appeared in a flash of light.

“Remember this is a library, Beej,” Lydia said in a voice that was as quiet as she possibly could muster, creeping slowly towards the door that led to the basement of the building. “We must talk quietly for as long as we are here.”

Betelgeuse nodded, following Lydia into the library’s basement. “Why are we going down here, Lyds?” Betelgeuse asked as he used his powers to turn all the lights on. “A basement is a completely weird place to find ghosts.”

“No,” Lydia corrected him with a slight laugh. “A basement is the perfect place to find ghosts.”

“If you say so,” Betelgeuse mumbled as he and Lydia walked down the last of the steps and fully entered the library basement.

* * *

Adam and Barbara left the attic and went downstairs to see if they could find either Charles or Delia. They wanted to talk to either one of them about something really quick.

They found Charles in his office, still working. Phased halfway through his office door, the Maitlands stayed quiet and waited until he finished his work and took notice of them.

It didn’t even take the living male five minutes to finish whatever it was he was working on. He turned his attention over towards his office door, preparing to get up and leave, and that’s when he took notice of the Maitlands.

“Hi, Adam, hi, Barbara,” he said with a smile on his face, using a hand to usher the two ghosts further into the room. “Is there something you guys needed?”

“Yes, actually,” Adam said as he and Barbara floated further into the office and came to a stop a few feet from Charles.

“Do you mind if we look at all of those photos of Lydia when she was younger again?” Barbara asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Charles said as he stood up, found the albums out again, and closed his office door behind him as he followed the Maitlands to the living room.

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse sat silently at a table, Lydia quietly reading a book on ghosts that she’d gone back upstairs to the main floor of the library to find and check out for herself. That and a few other books on ghosts.

Their search for ghosts had been nothing but a failure. If there had been any people who’d died at the library, both Lydia and Betelgeuse knew by now that those ghosts would have probably gone to the Netherworld by now.

Betelgeuse, in the midst of playing with his, now Blue colored, hair, stared at Lydia and let out a quiet sigh. “Well,” he said grabbing Lydia’s attention and the teen promptly turned the book she was reading to talk to him. Betelgeuse continued, “that was a bust. Do you mind if we go home, Lyds? We could try at the local church or cemetery tomorrow afternoon if you wanted.”  
  
  


“Yeah. I guess that’s a good idea, Betelgeuse,” Lydia said sadly.

Lydia let out a quiet sigh, picking up her books as she stood up and heading back up the stairs to the main floor of the library. Betelgeuse followed closely behind her. If they couldn’t find any ghosts here then their next best bet for finding ghosts who never made it to the Netherworld would be either the local church or the local cemetery. Those places, as Lydia had to guess, would be crawling with ghosts.

Deciding against disappearing in a flash of light in the middle of the main floor of the library, Lydia huddled close to Betelgeuse and the latter snapped his fingers to send them back home from the basement of the library.

Lydia was nervous of the amount of trouble she was going to get in with all four of her parents when she and Betelgeuse got home.

Really nervous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Again? I really should stop posting two chapters a day.


	15. Forgive and Forget

Lydia and Betelgeuse appeared in a flash of light right in the middle of the living room, coming face to face with all four of Lydia’s parents — all of who were once again looking at Lydia’s childhood photo albums.

They looked up, spotting them, and almost immediately, looks of anger appeared on each of their faces. Lydia gulped then let out a nervous laugh.

“I can explai-,” Lydia began to say. She was cut off by Barbara.

“Where have you been, young lady,” Barbara demanded of the nervous teenager in front of her, Adam, Charles, and Delia.

“Out in town again,” was Lydia’s immediate response. “Looking for ghosts at the local library.” She bent down to place the books she’d gotten from the library on the coffee table and refocused her attention onto all four of her angered parents.

“And did you happen to find any?” Adam asked, folding his arms.

“Not really.” Lydia scratched the back of her head. “Beej and I were planning — no — thinking about heading out to either the local cemetery or the local church and look for ghosts tomorrow. Those places will hopefully both be crawling with ghosts who never made it to the Netherworld.”

“Absolutely not!” all four of her parents shouted in unison, upsetting Lydia.

Tears began to pour from the teenager’s eyes as she turned and ran out of the living room. The anger her four parents had been feeling towards her faded away as they heard the sounds of her footsteps stomp across the upstairs landing and her bedroom door slam closed and lock.

They hurt her feelings and they now regretted it.

Betelgeuse had since gone upstairs as well, phasing through the teen’s bedroom door considering it was locked.

“Should I go and check on her?” Barbara asked the rest of the adults of the Maitland-Deetzes.

“Give her time,” Charles said as he turned the page of the album that he was showing Adam. “She’ll be okay in an hour or two...I hope.”

Barbara sighed and refocused her attention onto the album Delia had picked up and was showing her.

* * *

Still upset and crying, Lydia threw herself onto her bed and grabbed a pillow to scream into. She was too into her crying fit, she didn’t notice Betelgeuse phasing through her bedroom door and sit himself down on the floor next to her, at least until she felt the touch of an ice cold hand on her back.

Brown eyes still blurry from too much crying, the teenager lifted her face from her pillow and looked up, spotting Betelgeuse. Immediately, she buried her face back into her pillow and said a muffled,

“Go away, Beej.”

“No.” Betelgeuse began to gently rub circles into Lydia’s back in order to try and calm her down just a little. “I would much rather stay in here with you, Scarecrow. Y’know, in case you need some company.”

Lydia lifted her face from her pillow again and looked back over towards the demon, still upset with tears now streaming down her face. Betelgeuse used his other hand to wipe the tears from his best human friend’s eyes.

“I guess I really do need someone to keep me company,” Lydia finally admitted.

Betelgeuse smiled as Lydia sat upright and he moved to sit on the bed next to her. He was still rubbing circles in Lydia’s back and she was calming down...but only just a little.

“All better, Scarecrow?” Betelgeuse asked the moment he began to notice the amount of tears streaming down Lydia’s face was slowing down.

“Much better,” was Lydia’s response. And then she fell asleep.

* * *

It had been an hour since Lydia and Betelgeuse had gotten home from their second trip out into the town that day and all four of Lydia’s parents still regretted their brief yelling at the teenager.

Closing the album she was done looking through, Barbara stood up and turned to the rest of the adults in the living room.

“I think I’m going to go upstairs and check on Lydia and Betelgeuse,” the female ghost said. “It’s been long enough. Surely she would be okay by now.

“I’m coming too,” Adam suddenly said. He and Barbara exited the living room and headed upstairs to Lydia’s bedroom.

That just left Charles and Delia on their own in the living room. With a soft sounding sigh, Charles stood up and turned to Delia.

“I think I’m going to put these photo albums away and then do some work in my office,” he told the Life Coach, to which she nodded.

He nodded as well, picking up the photo albums and heading straight back to his office, leaving Delia alone for the time being. The only thing she could think of doing for now was watching tv so she picked up the remote and switched it on.

She was half an hour into watching one of her favorite programs when she heard the sounds of what she thought was yelling coming from Charles’s office.

* * *

  
  
The Maitlands had been knocking nonstop on Lydia’s bedroom door for five short minutes, until eventually Betelgeuse phased halfway through the door to talk to them.

“She’s still upset about you guys, Chuck, and Delilah yelling at her,” Betelgeuse had explained to the two ghosts as he phased further through Lydia’s bedroom door. “I managed to calm her down just a little but then she got upset all over again.”

“Is there anything we could do to try and help her, mr. Betelgeuse?” Barbara asked out of concern. She was about to head into Lydia’s room so she could comfort her but Betelgeuse stopped her.

“You could try,” the demon explained.

“Good,” said Adam. “Because we feel really bad about shouting at her. As do Charles and Delia actually. Yelling at her was something we never should have done.”

Betelgeuse phased back through Lydia’s bedroom door and the Maitlands followed suit.

They sat on either side of Lydia, Barbara resting an ice cold hand in the teenager’s hair. Adam began rubbing cold circles into Lydia’s back.

“Lydia,” Barbara began. “We’re really sorry about yelling at you earlier. We never should have done it.”

Lydia said nothing in return. She just kept on with her crying.

Barbara removed her hand from Lydia’s hair and cast a glance over towards Adam, who had since stopped rubbing circles into Lydia’s back. He had the same look of worry as she did plastered on his face.

The same thing ran through their heads at the exact same time and they quickly turned, phasing through Lydia’s bedroom door on their way to Charles’s office.

“HEY!” Betelgeuse shouted after them as they rushed past him. “BABS! SEXY! WHERE’RE YOU GUYS GOING?!”

* * *

  
The Maitlands practically flew into Charles’s office as fast as they both possibly could. The living male looked up at them, a look of worry appearing on his face when he saw the equally panicked looks on their faces.

“Adam, Barbara?” he spoke up out of surprise. “Is something the matter?”

That made them start talking over one another.

“We went to check on Lydia and make sure she was okay but we got nothing out of her,” Barbara said in a hurry.

Adam added, “it’s almost as if she can’t see us anymore.”

Charles held his hands up to calm the two frantic ghosts down. “Woah, woah, you guys,” he said. “Calm down. One at a time please.”

They turned and looked at one another before refocusing their attention back over towards Charles.

“We went to check up on Lydia, make sure she was okay after we yelled at her earlier,” Barbara explained. “I told her we were all sorry for doing that and we got no reaction from her.”

Charles’s eyes widened at this. “Oh my,” he said. “I was afraid of this.”


	16. Promises are Made...But Can they Be Kept?

Lydia was still crying her heart out, her best demon friend sitting beside her bed and comforting her, rubbing circles into her back much like Adam had done half an hour ago. Sure she felt the Maitlands’ ice cold hands on her but she was too busy with her crying to even say a word to either of them or even come up with an answer to Barbara’s question.

She lifted her head from her pillow and looked up at Betelgeuse before looking around her bedroom for signs of the Maitlands. When she found none, she refocused her attention back over towards Betelgeuse.

“Where are the Maitlands?” she asked, a hint of confusion in her voice. “I could’ve sworn they were in here earlier.”

“They were in here but they left in quite a hurry for several reasons that I don’t even know,” replied Betelgeuse with a shrug.

“I hope they don’t think I can’t see them anymore,” Lydia said with a sigh and a laugh. “Because that in itself would be preposterous.”

“Wait!” Betelgeuse held up a hand and stopped Lydia from continuing to talk. “Now that I think about it, they did look at one another with equal looks of confusion on their faces before they dashed out of your bedroom, Scarecrow.”

Lydia’s eyes widened in a mix of shock and worry. “Oh no,” she said quickly, dashing out of her bedroom with Betelgeuse following closely behind her.

They rushed down the stairs looking for the Maitlands when Lydia spotted them both in her dad’s office, still a little worried about something — which Lydia had to guess was her being unable to see them. Lydia and Betelgeuse dashed into the room, and that grabbed the attention of the Maitlands and Charles — all of whom turned to look at the girl and the demon.

“Lydia!” Adam and Barbara rushed over towards her and each gave her a hug, both of which she accepted with a smile. “We were so worried you weren’t able to see us anymore,” the two ghosts continued in unison. “We’d gone up to your room to check on you and we asked you a question and we waited for a response from you but one never came.”

“I’m sorry if I didn’t answer your question, guys,” was Lydia’s response. “I was crying so hard I couldn’t hear it.”

“And we’re sorry if we took your crying as you couldn’t see us anymore, Lydia,” the Maitlands both responded.

“Apology accepted,” the three of them said at once before getting into a laughing fit which, eventually, Charles and Betelgeuse entered as well. Delia, who had been staying quiet and standing in the doorway of Charles’s office entered as well, making her way over towards Charles and placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Delia?” Charles said, surprised. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long,” was the response. “I thought I heard the sounds of yelling coming from here so I came to check it out.”

“We weren’t yelling, just laughing,” the other five said at once.

Their laughing fit resumed, with Delia joining in this time.

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse had gone back upstairs to the former’s room, leaving all four of the former’s parents downstairs to do their own thing. Lydia, who was completely over her crying fit from earlier, was feeling much much better. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at Betelgeuse.

“Hah!” she shouted with a slight smirk on her face. “Take that, Beej!”

Betelgeuse summoned six pillows out of thin air at once and threw them all at Lydia.

“How about you take that!” he shouted back at her.

Lydia’s smirk grew wider as she climbed up onto her bed and grabbed a couple of pillows before throwing them back at Betelgeuse.

“No fair!” Betelgeuse shouted as he dodged the pillows thrown by Lydia.

“Yes fair!” Lydia replied.

There were a few knocks on Lydia’s bedroom door and both she and Betelgeuse put a stop to their brief pillow fight, turning to face the door to Lydia’s bedroom. The knocking from earlier resumed followed by a voice,

“Lydia? Betelgeuse? It’s us, Barbara and Adam! Are you guys in here? We’d like to talk to you!”

“Yes!” Lydia shouted back. “We’re in here!”

The Maitlands both phased through Lydia’s bedroom door, floating themselves down onto Lydia’s bed and Barbara patted an empty spot in between her and Adam for Lydia to sit in.

As Lydia sat herself down on her bed and Betelgeuse chose a spot on the floor in front of them, both Maitlands rested an ice cold hand each on Lydia’s shoulders.

“What did you guys want to talk to us about?” Lydia asked, looking at Barbara and then at Adam.

“When we came up earlier,” Adam said. “We wanted to check on you and make sure that you were doing okay but you were busy with your crying so...are you doing okay?”

“I’m fine. Much better than I was earlier,” Lydia replied, making the Maitlands both smile. “Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Yeah, don’t ever ignore us when we try to talk to you,” the Maitlands both chorused, causing Lydia to giggle.

“I won’t guys,” she said. “I promise I won’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter may be short but I promise you that the remaining chapters (aside from the last) will be longer.


	17. The Graveyard Ghost

The four of them decided to head back down to the living room to spend some time with Charles and Delia, the two living adults joining them when Barbara phased through the closed door of Charles’s office to ask if they wanted to join.

Naturally, the answer was “yes” from both of them.

The six of them found themselves sitting in a circle in the center of the living room, all unsure of what they were going to do during their time spent together. If it wasn’t for Delia’s suggesting she find out some of her crystals and spread them all over the floor in the center of the circle or for Charles’s suggestion that they look at photo albums for the third time that day then they would have already figured out what to do with their time.

“We could play a board game,” Lydia suggested.

“No,” said Barbara. “We did that a couple days ago. We need to think up something else that we haven’t already done at least once this week.”

Fresh out of ideas, the six of them decided that spending time together for now wasn’t worth it and they split up to go and do their own things once again. Lydia and Betelgeuse had headed back upstairs to the former’s bedroom, Adam and Barbara went back upstairs to the attic, Charles went back to his office, and Delia went upstairs to sort through her crystals once again.

* * *

Adam began to continue with working on his model of the town of Winter River, the house that he, Barbara, the Deetzes, and Betelgeuse (on occasion) all lived in together.

He looked for reference photos of the exterior of the house and realized he didn’t have any to go by. He quickly cast a glance over towards Barbara, who was in the middle of the book she was currently reading, and left the attic to go and find Lydia.

* * *

Lydia slumped on top of her bed, paying little to no attention to Betelgeuse as he inspected her bug then grabbed a pillow and threw it directly at her.

She felt it hit her almost immediately and she turned to face Betelgeuse with a wicked grin on her face.

“Want to have another pillow fight, do we?” Lydia asked in a knowing tone of voice as she too grabbed a pillow, threw it at Betelgeuse, and began chortling — only to stop when he summoned eight pillows out of thin air and threw them, one by one, at her. “You’re on!” Lydia continued, now standing on top of her bed and throwing pillow after pillow back at Betelgeuse, ducking as he did the same.

Midst pillow fight, Lydia and Betelgeuse turned at the slight sounds of knocking on the former’s bedroom door. Putting an immediate end to their pillow fight, Betelgeuse teleported himself on top of Lydia’s bed whilst Lydia herself went to open her bedroom door.

On the other side of Lydia’s bedroom door stood Adam, looking at Lydia with a look on his face which Lydia knew meant he wanted her to do something for him. And Lydia knew what that something was.

“Want me to get you some more reference photos for your model, right, Adam?” Lydia asked knowingly.

“How did you know?”

“Easy,” Lydia replied. “You have this look on your face that tells me you need more reference photos.”

“The look gave it away, huh?”

“Yep! Now, what did you need reference photos of this time?”

“The exterior of the house.”

“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” And with that, Lydia headed outside.

It did take Lydia exactly two minutes to take the pictures of the exterior of the Maitland-Deetz house. She handed them to her ghost father and he left, thanking her as he phased through her now closed bedroom door and went back upstairs to the attic.

When he was gone, Lydia turned to Betelgeuse. “How about instead of going out to look for ghosts in the local cemetery tomorrow, we can do it today. The church can wait until tomorrow.”

“Lyds,” Betelgeuse said with a slight sigh. “That’s a great idea and all but won’t you, like, get super grounded by all four of your parents for sneaking out a third time today.”

“They won’t notice,” Lydia started. “I have to go down for dinner. We’ll go out again afterwards, okay?”

“Oh...okay, but don’t get upset again when you get in trouble for the third time today.”

“Like I said, they won’t notice. I’ll make no mention of our current plans during dinner.” With that, Lydia turned, left her bedroom, closed her door behind her, and went downstairs to join all four of her parents for dinner.

A half an hour was all it took for Lydia to finish her dinner. The teenager sprinted up the stairs as fast as she possibly could after excusing herself from the table right as Delia and Barbara were about to ask for her help in clearing up the dishes.

Her getting up and heading up the stairs at such a fast pace confused all four of her parents, leading to the lot of them calling after her. Lydia had to drown out her parents’ urgent calls if both she and Betelgeuse were going to go through with their plan.

“We ready to go?” Lydia asked Betelgeuse as she closed her bedroom door behind her and turned her attention over towards him.

“I guess,” was all Betelgeuse said. With a snap of his fingers, he and Lydia disappeared in yet another flash of light on their way to the local cemetery to look for ghosts who never made it to the Netherworld.

They knew, no, they hoped they wouldn’t be gone long.

* * *

  
Ten minutes had passed, Charles deciding to leave the living room to go upstairs and check on Lydia, noting to himself that it was unusual for her to excuse herself from the dining room table as quickly as she had done that night. He’d go upstairs, make sure that she was okay, then head back downstairs to continue his conversation with Adam — that was the plan he currently had set in his mind.

He came to a stop outside of his daughter’s bedroom door, knocked a few times on it, and waited for the slightest bit of an answer from the teenager.

When he got no response or answer from Lydia, Charles knocked on her door again and called out,

“Lydia?! Are you in there?!”

Again, there was no response from the teenager, making Charles confused. He pushed open his daughter’s bedroom door and headed inside...

...only to find it empty. Not one sign of either Lydia or Betelgeuse anywhere.

Charles’s eyes widened. Quickly, he turned and headed right back downstairs to let his fellow adults know about this.

Lydia was going to be in so much trouble when she and Betelgeuse got back home.

Grounded even.

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse appeared in a flash of light right smack dab in the middle of the local cemetery. It was slowly getting dark, the light from the moon shining down on every grave and lighting up Lydia’s and Betelgeuse’s faces as they walked up and down row after row of gravestones. There had to be over a hundred graves in the cemetery alone. Not that Lydia was counting them as she walked beside Betelgeuse and looked for lost ghosts.

Betelgeuse looked ahead and spotted something, or someone, directly up ahead — sitting on top of a recent gravestone and looking down towards the ground as he, at least Betelgeuse assumed it was a he, kicked his legs.

Excitedly, Betelgeuse nudged Lydia and pointed in the ghost boy’s direction.

“Lydia!” he said as quietly as he possibly could, so as to not alert the male ghost to their presences. “Look!”

Lydia looked in the same direction as Betelgeuse was pointing and caught sight of the same ghost that Betelgeuse had noticed earlier.

Very quickly and quietly, the two best friends made their way over towards the male ghost.

“Hi, I’m Lydia and this here is Betelgeuse,” Lydia said as she and Betelgeuse extended their hands out towards the male ghost. He looked towards the two of them, taking Lydia’s hand and then Betelgeuse’s.

“My name is Edward,” the male ghost replied. “Are you dead too?”

“Nono,” said Lydia with a shake of her head. “I’m not dead, I’m still alive. Beej, however, is dead.”

“You can see ghosts,” Edward commented, looking to Lydia.

“Yep!” Lydia replied. “Now, if you don’t mind me asking...why are you here in the cemetery and say not in the Netherworld?”

Edward grew confused. “What is the Netherworld?”

“Allow me to show you,” Betelgeuse said as he summoned a piece of Green chalk out of thin air, walked over to the back of a statue and drew a door into the base, knocking on it three times and turning to face Edward again.

“You seem like really nice people,” said Edward as he got up off the grave he was sitting on and went over to inspect the door. “But are you sure that this ‘Netherworld’ is safe?”

“Uh...yeah,” Betelgeuse replied with a chuckle. “Although, I have a question for you?”

“What is it?” Edward asked.

“How long have you been dead for?”

“Three years,” said Edward.

Betelgeuse just nodded. So Edward wasn’t going to get into as much trouble as Elizabeth most likely did for being sixty years late going to the Netherworld. As Edward began to walk directly towards the door, Betelgeuse stepped out of the way.

But not before he summoned a tote bag out of thin air and handed it to Edward, who took it without hesitation and looked up at Betelgeuse before turning and looking over towards Lydia.

“Well,” Edward said with a sad smile on his face. “Guess I better get going to this Netherworld place. It was nice to meet you guys.”

“You too!” shouted Lydia and Edward smiled before turning and walking through the door to the Netherworld. As it closed behind him, Lydia turned to Betelgeuse. “Shall we get going?” she asked her best demon friend. “It’s late and probably past my bedtime.

“We shall,” replied Betelgeuse. With a snap of his fingers, the two of them disappeared in a flash of light out of the cemetery and headed home.

They reappeared in the center of the living room and came face to face with all four of Lydia’s parents. None of them seemed to be happy.

“You,” Barbara said as she gestured towards a now nervous looking Lydia. “Are grounded, young lady.”

Lydia gulped.


	18. Ground Decision

Early the next morning, Lydia woke up to find Betelgeuse draped across the end of her bed and snoring away. The teenager let out a few stifled giggles and that woke the demon up.

Betelgeuse awoke immediately, sitting up and looking over towards Lydia, his eyes blurry. Lydia motioned for him to get off her bed and he did so, sitting himself on the floor next to Lydia’s bed. He had to scoot out of the way though as Lydia was getting out of bed herself.

“Betelgeuse?” Lydia asked nervously. “Do you mind turning around? I need to get dressed.”

“Not at all,” Betelgeuse said with a sigh and spun around so that he was facing away from the teenager.

“Thank you, Beej.”

Lydia grabbed her favorite Black dress and threw it over her head before sitting herself down on the floor and pulling on her combat boots. She sighed and refocused her attention back towards Betelgeuse.

“Okay,” she finally said with a laugh. “You can turn around now, Bj. I’m done getting dressed.”

Betelgeuse turned and watched as Lydia began to exit her bedroom. “Where’re you going right now, Lyds?” he asked, confusion appearing in the tone of his voice.

“Downstairs,” was her reply. “To get some breakfast. I’ll be back up in half an hour. okay?”

“Okay,” responded Betelgeuse. He turned and began to look at what her pet insect was doing at the moment, giving Lydia just enough time to head out of her room and go downstairs for breakfast.

* * *

She crept down the stairs, a bright smile on her face, and entered the kitchen area of the house, giving all four of her parents a greeting each as she sat herself down at the kitchen counter.

Barbara placed a bowl of Lydia’s favorite cereal and a glass of orange juice down in front of her and the teenager began to slowly eat. She focused her attention onto Barbara and let out a sigh, bringing concern to her ghost mother.

“Is something the matter, Lydia?” asked Barbara.

“Nono,” Lydia said. “It’s just...am I still grounded from sneaking out with Betelgeuse again last night?”

Her dad chose to answer that question for Barbara, relieving the female ghost.

“Yes,” he sternly told Lydia. “You are. I went upstairs to your room because I needed to talk to you last night and you weren’t there...again. I’d also like to remind you that you are never ever allowed to go out and look for lost ghosts with Betelgeuse again unless you let any of us know.” He gestured to himself, to Delia, to Barbara, and then to Adam all while keeping his gaze focused on Lydia. “Do you promise,” he finally spoke.

“I promise,” Lydia said sadly, looking down towards the kitchen floor. “Does that mean I’m grounded for less time?”

“You’re only grounded for a couple days, Lydia,” Adam said, resting an ice cold hand on the teenager’s back.

Lydia smiled, finishing her breakfast as quickly as she could and heading back upstairs to her bedroom to check up on Betelgeuse.

“Where are you going in such a hurry!” Adam shouted up the stairs after Lydia.

“Back upstairs to my bedroom!” she shouted back down to him. “I’d like to make sure that Beej is okay.”

“Okay!” Adam shouted back. “But don’t take too long. Charles wants to show us some videos of you when you were younger.”

Lydia let out a groan and turned, heading straight to her bedroom.

* * *

She pushed open the door to her bedroom and walked inside, catching sight of Betelgeuse once again fast asleep and draped over her entire bed this time. She turned and saw that the roof of the plastic cage she kept her pet insect in was open and her pet was not in it. With a sigh, she refocused her attention back over towards Betelgeuse and shook her head.

She crept over towards Betelgeuse and poked him, waking up the sleeping demon almost immediately. He shot up with a start and turned his head to look at a now fuming Lydia.

“Lyds?” he asked, unaware of what the teen was about to ask him. “How long have I been asleep for?”

“Where is my pet worm?!” Lydia ask-demanded, folding her arms and glaring angrily at Betelgeuse.

“What?!”

“Where is my pet worm?!!” Lydia repeated, even louder this time.

“Oh,” Betelgeuse said sadly. “It was looking rather dry so I opened the lid and let it out, placing it on your window sill and opening your window. Then a bird flew up to your open window and took it.”

“You let a bird take my pet worm!” Lydia was exceptionally furious right now. She leapt at Betelgeuse, tackled him to the floor, and the two began to play-fight.

Her four parents, concerned with all the noise that was happening upstairs, all rushed up together to see what exactly was going on. Adam and Barbara phased through Lydia’s closed bedroom door first and then Charles opened the door and he and Delia rushed in.

“What is going on up here?” Adam asked as he, Barbara, Charles, and Delia turned and focused their attention onto the two play-fighting best friends.

They put a halt to their play-fighting and sat upright on the floor of Lydia’s bedroom, turning their heads and focusing their attention onto all four of Lydia’s concerned, worried parents.

“Nothing, dad, Delia, Adam, Barbara. We were just play-fighting,” Lydia said out of honesty. “Betelgeuse decided to allow a bird to fly up, grab my pet worm in its mouth, and fly off with it after he left my pet worm on my window sill and opened my window.”

“In my defense,” Betelgeuse said softly and quietly to Lydia. “I didn’t allow the bird to fly up to your window and take off with your pet worm. It simply flew up because it wanted to.”

“WHY do you have a pet worm!?!?!?!?” all four of Lydia’s parents chorused.

“I found a worm in the backyard three days ago,” Lydia calmly explained. “It looked lonely so I picked it up and brought it inside.”

“Why don’t we get you a real pet,” Charles said, kneeling down on the ground in front of Lydia. “Like a dog or a cat or something.”

“Or how about a small handheld pet or a hamster,” Barbara suggested. “Those are easy to take care of.”

“I’ll think about it,” was all Lydia could say.

“Great. Now, do you mind joining us downstairs?” Charles asked his daughter and Betelgeuse. “I was just about to show Delia and the Maitlands some videos I had of you when you were a child when we heard you and Betelgeuse play-fighting upstairs.”

“Fine!” Lydia grumbled in agreement and Betelgeuse nodded.


	19. Clipshowing

Five of the six of them, minus Charles, who was busy putting a DVD containing clips of a younger Lydia into the DVD player, sat together on the couch. Delia sat to the left and saved a spot for Charles to sit in when he was done putting the DVD in.

Once done, Charles grabbed the DVD remote and sat himself down on the couch next to Delia.

“Ready?” he asked the other five members of the Maitland-Deetz family.

“Ready!” they all confirmed and Charles began to play the DVD.

The first clip was of a six month old Lydia. Emily is heard speaking on the television.

“Come on, Lydia,” she said. “Say mama.”

“No, say dada,” Charles is heard saying on the tv.

Baby Lydia is shown on the tv looking confusedly between both of her waiting of her parents. She opens her mouth, as if she is about to say something, and then closes it again.

“Come on, Lydia,” video Charles is heard saying. “You can say dada.”

“No,” said video Emily. “Say mama, Lydia. C’mon.”

Baby Lydia opened her mouth again.

“Mama? Dada?”

Video Charles and Emily are heard making equal surprised sounds. “She said both words,” they said in unison.

A new clip was then shown on the tv, this one showing a now one year-old Lydia sitting on the floor. Emily is shown laying behind her.

“So that’s what Emily looked like?” Barbara asked in curiosity, turning to look at Charles. The living male nodded.

“Yep,” he said.

The two of them turn their attention back over towards the screen.

Video Emily helps Lydia up and the one year-old wobbles before falling on her bottom on the floor again.

“She’s nearly there,” video Emily is heard telling video Charles, who is standing behind the camera and filming. “Just once more helping her stand up and she’ll hopefully take her first steps without falling.”

“Let me help,” video Charles is heard replying. He hands the camera to video Emily and sits himself on the floor behind Lydia. “Maybe we should let her stand up on her own and take her first steps,” video Charles suggests to Emily.

“Good idea,” video Emily replies.

One year-old Lydia stands up and takes a few steps. She doesn’t even fall on her bottom this time. Video Charles looks towards the camera and gives video Emily a thumbs up.

“She did it,” video Charles says with a smile on his face.

“Yep! She did,” replies video Emily.

The clip changes to show a now five year-old Lydia, dressed in what appears to be a nice outfit. Her Blonde hair is tied back into a high ponytail and she is staring nervously at the camera.

“It’s your first day of school. Your first day of kindergarten, Lydia,” video Charles is heard saying.

Emily appears on the screen, placing a chalk board with the words Lydia’s first day of kindergarten on it. Emily walks away and stands behind the camera and beside Charles. Soon after, thecamera on Emily’s phone is heard.

“Just one more,” video Emily is heard saying. “Smile, Lydia.”

Five year-old Lydia smiles and Emily takes another picture.

“I can’t believe it’s already your first day of kindergarten,” video Emily says as she walks back onto the screen and helps Lydia put her backpack on. “Boy does time fly by fast. It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital giving birth to you.”

Video Lydia smiled at her.

“That’s it,” Charles said as he stood up and went to take the DVD out. He put it back into its case and turned to face the rest of the family, addressing Delia, Betelgeuse, and the Maitlands. “Thanks for letting me show those clips to you, guys.”

“You’re welcome,” they chorused back to him.

Charles exited the living room, heading back to his office to put it away and do some more work. When he was gone, Lydia turned to Delia, Adam, and Barbara. “Do you guys mind if Betelgeuse and I head back out to look for more ghosts?” she asked nervously.

“No!” they shouted in unison. “You may not, young lady.”

“You’re only grounded for a couple of days,” Barbara added with a sigh. “You may only go out to look for some ghosts with Betelgeuse after that time is up but only if you ask permission first.”

“Okay,” Lydia said sadly, heading back upstairs to her bedroom with Betelgeuse following closely behind her.

* * *

Lydia lay on her back on top of her bed, her sheets strewn all over the floor all around it, facing the ceiling of her bedroom. Her view was soon covered by a concerned Betelgeuse, hovering over top of her and looking down towards her.

“Betelgeuse!” she said with a groan. “Get out of the way. I’m trying to sulk here.”

“I was just wanting to make sure you were okay, Lydia,” Betelgeuse grumbled and teleported out of Lydia’s view, appearing a few feet away from the teenager’s bed and sitting on the floor. “Sheesh.”

“I’m fine, Betelgeuse! Okay! Just leave me alone and go bother the Maitlands or whatever. I’m sure they’d want to spend some time with you.”

“Fine!” Betelgeuse grumbled and teleported out of Lydia’s bedroom in a bright flash of light.

* * *

Betelgeuse reappeared in the center of the attic of the house and sure enough, the Maitlands were there, Adam working on his model some more and Barbara reading in her favorite rocking chair.

They looked up from what they were doing the moment Betelgeuse appeared, surprised, to say the least. Adam put down the paintbrush he was holding and Barbara closed her book after replacing her bookmark in it, the two of them making their way over towards the nervous looking demon.

“Was there something you needed, mr. Geuse?” Adam asked.

Betelgeuse nodded. “Lydia doesn’t want to spend time with me,” he said sadly. “She’s busy sulking in her bedroom.”

“Sometimes everyone needs some time to themselves, mr. Betelgeuse,” Barbara explained, resting a hand on Betelgeuse’s shoulder. “Maybe leave Lydia alone for the time being and let her sulk for a while. I don’t know why she’s sulking. Maybe Adam and I can go check on her. You could come too if you wanted.

Betelgeuse just nodded and the three of them teleported out of the attic.

They appeared in Lydia’s bedroom not too long after, finding the teenager still sulking and laying on her back on top of her bed. Adam rested an ice cold hand on Lydia’s shoulder and the teenager let out a few groans.

“Lydia?” Barbara asked. “Are you doing okay?”

“I’m fine! Just leave me alone!” was the response she got.

“Lydia, we just want to know why you’re sulking,” said Adam.

“I’m not telling you.”

“Come on, Lydia,” Barbara pleaded. “Please tell us.”

“Fine!” Lydia grumbled. “I’m sulking because of the videos my dad showed you guys.”

“What’s wrong with them?” Adam asked worriedly.

“EVERYTHING!!”


	20. When Problems Arise

“And then she told us that she really needed some time alone,” Barbara urgently explained to Charles an approximate fifteen minutes later. She, Adam, and Betelgeuse were all standing in Charles’s office, explaining what had just happened in Lydia’s bedroom.

Charles had been shocked. Lydia loved it when he showed her those videos. It was unlike her to hate watching them. He looked up at all three dead people in front of him and let out a sigh, standing up.

“I’ll go and talk to her,” he said. “You guys can come back upstairs to Lydia’s bedroom if you want.”

With that he left his office and Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse decided to follow him. The four of them were soon standing outside Lydia’s now locked bedroom door and Charles was debating whether or not to knock on it.

He eventually decided to and stood back with Betelgeuse and the Maitlands, waiting for Lydia to unlock and open her bedroom door.

She eventually did and stared confusedly at her dad before turning and focusing her attention over towards Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse.

“Why are they back here?” Lydia asked, no, spat, returning her attention back towards her dad.

“Lydia!” said Charles sternly. “Be nice to them.”

“Fine!” Lydia said, folding her arms.

Although the Maitlands and Betelgeuse were all hurt by what Lydia had said, they still managed to all remain calm yet tears were starting to pour from their eyes.

“I’m sorry guys,” Lydia said, a hint of sadness to her voice.

“Aw, Lydia,” Barbara said, resting an ice cold hand against Lydia’s cheek. “We all forgive you.”

Adam and Betelgeuse came a little closer to the teenager as well, Adam resting an ice cold hand on Lydia’s other cheek and Betelgeuse resting an ice cold hand in her hair, beginning to ruffle it.

Lydia, smiling, gave each of them a hug then turned and headed back into her bedroom. As Charles and the Maitlands turned to head back downstairs, Betelgeuse phased right through Lydia’s bedroom door, wanting to spend at least some time with the teenager...but only if she allowed it.

He found her sitting over by the cage where her pet worm used to be kept in, staring sadly down at it and continuously sighing to herself. Betelgeuse coughed to grab her attention and the teen turned to look at him.

“What do you want, Betelgeuse?” Lydia asked.

“What I want,” Betelgeuse said as he thought quietly to himself, “is to spend at least some time with you. I know you’ve been down lately but I figured that it would make you happy if you spent a little time with me. We could have another pillow figh-.”

As he spoke, a pillow was thrown directly at him. He turned and found Lydia standing on her bed, smiling widely and giggling cheekily as she clutched a couple other pillows in her hands.

“You want another pillow fight,” Lydia said, her wide smile quickly becoming a wicked smirk. “I‘ll give you another pillow fight.”

“You’re on!” Betelgeuse picked up the pillow Lydia had thrown at him and chucked it back at the teenager, who laughed and threw the two pillows she was holding back at him.

* * *

All four of the adults of the Maitland-Deetz Family were all busy doing their own things. Adam and Barbara were in the attic of the house, Adam was working some more on his model (he was almost done with it, he just needed a few more reference photos from Lydia and then he could add the finishing touches to it), Barbara was doing some more reading (she was almost done with her book, much to her delight. Just one more chapter left and she’d be done), Charles was in his office, getting some last minute work, and Delia was still in her and Charles’s bedroom, sorting through her crystals.

Adam added a building to his model and stood back to examine it, a frown appearing on his face when he felt like he still needed to add just one last little thing to it.

But, what was it? The male ghost couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

He turned to Barbara, who’s eyes were scanning what appeared to be the final page of the novel that she was reading, and waited. He’d let her finish her novel and then he’d talk to her.

As if by magic, Barbara closed her novel and placed it down on the table sitting next to her favorite rocking chair. She turned and focused her attention on Adam, quickly noting the frown on her husband’s face.

“Adam, hon?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”

“Yeah,” he said as he sat, with his legs in a criss-cross position, down on the floor beside his 99 percent finished model and returned his attention to Barbara. “I feel like something’s missing from my model but I can’t put my finger on it. Could you help me out, Barb, dear?”

“Of course.”

Barbara stood up and made her way over towards her husband’s near-finished model, inspecting it over. Adam had since stood back up and was inspecting his model as well.   


“Hey, uh, Adam?” asked Barbara out of complete confusion. “Where’s the school that we used to go to?”

Adam looked at the spot where Winter River High should be and frowned before turning to leave the attic.

“I’ll go and ask Lydia to go and take a few reference pictures of Winter River high school,” said Adam.

“She’s grounded and not allowed to go out anywhere, remember,” Barbara reminded her husband with a groan. “She won’t be able to get pictures of the school until tomorrow afternoon.”

“She doesn’t have to be though,” Adam replied. “I need those pictures if I’m gonna finish my model by tonight.”

“But she is.”

“Maybe we could unground her just to have her go out and get the last of the reference pictures I need,” said Adam with a laugh. “It’s just a quick little errand for her to run.”

“Fine!” relented Barbara. “I guess she’ll have to be ungrounded a day early.” The Maitlands quickly nodded to each other then left the attic to go and find Lydia.

* * *

  
Lydia hid behind a humongous wall of pillows, grinning widely as Betelgeuse threw pillow after pillow at her. Her bedroom was a right mess, being covered from ceiling to floor in pillows. Lydia dodged another pillow thrown by Betelgeuse and then threw a couple pillows from the pillow wall she was hidden behind at Betelgeuse.

“Take that!” Lydia shouted as she threw a third pillow at Betelgeuse.

“No!” Betelgeuse shouted back as he used his powers and chucked the three pillows Lydia had just thrown at him back at the teenager.

“Hey! No fair!” Lydia dove into her pillow wall and popped up from the very top of it, throwing pillow after pillow at Betelgeuse, all of which he effectively dodged.

“Yes fair!” Betelgeuse threw a couple pillows back at Lydia.

There was a knock at the door, stopping the pillow fight between Lydia and Betelgeuse and directing the attention of the two best friends towards the door to Lydia’s bedroom.

“Come in!” Lydia shouted.

The door to Lydia’s bedroom openedand to Lydia’s eyes, nothing came in. Betelgeuse however noticed that the Maitlands were on the other side of the door.

“Sexy,” he said. “Babs, did you need something?”

“Well, we were going to tell Lydia that she was ungrounded because I need some more reference pictures in order to finish my model,” said Adam with a sigh. “But she looks like she’s looking around the room for us.”

“It’s as if she can’t see us,” added Barbara, her eyes going wide.

Uh oh...

“DAD?!” shouted Lydia.

“CHARLES?!” the Maitlands shouted in unison.

“CHUCK?!” yelled Betelgeuse.

The living male came rushing up the stairs as quickly as he possibly could, running into Lydia’s bedroom and closing the door behind him.

He turned and focused his attention back over towards his daughter, the Maitlands, and Betelgeuse. “Is there a problem?” he asked, afraid of what the answer would and might be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, so this chapter started with Lydia still being able to see the Maitlands and ended with a cliffhanger of Lydia suddenly being unable to see the Maitlands. Will she be able to see the Maitlands again or will she never be able to see her ghost parents for the rest of her life?
> 
> On a side note: I can’t believe this story has reached up to twenty chapters and will be longer than my other multi chapter fanfics on this site. This story may be far from over but I can’t wait to finish it.


	21. Wait to Figure Out a Way to Help

The five of them again stood together in Charles’s office, explaining to the living male what had just happened. Although they were just talking over one another.

Charles held his hands up to quiet the other four down.

“Now, Lydia,” he said, turning to look over towards Lydia. “You were able to see the Maitlands earlier but now you’re unable to see the Maitlands?”

Lydia nodded, looking sadly down towards the floor of her dad’s office space.

Charles turned to face the Maitlands and Betelgeuse. “You guys may all go,” he said with a sigh. “I’d like to talk to Lydia alone.

All three dead people nodded and left the room, Adam and Barbara heading back upstairs to the attic and Betelgeuse going back upstairs to Lydia’s bedroom to wait for her.

Charles sighed as he sat his daughter down and sat himself on the office floor in front of her, looking the teenager in the eye. “Lydia,” he said. “Do you have any idea as to what could’ve possibly rendered you unable to see the Maitlands?”

Sadly, Lydia shook her head and sighed. “I don’t know,” was her response. “I’ve been spending some time with them so I know that’s not the reason.”

“Could it be something else then?” her dad asked. “Like asking them to leave you alone?”

“No. That can’t be it. I asked Betelgeuse to leave me alone as well and I can still see him.”

“Can you think of any other reasons why you can’t seem to see them anymore,” Charles asked and Lydia shook her head again.

“Well,” Charles said. “Why don’t you go to your room for now. I’ll think of something to help you. I’ll tell Delia what happened and see if she can help and, if we’re lucky, Betelgeuse will hopefully do too.”

“Okay.” Lydia smiled at her dad and turned to leave her dad’s office room, heading back upstairs to her bedroom.

* * *

Lydia reentered her bedroom and closed the door behind her before turning around to find Betelgeuse sitting on top of her neatly-made bed and looking in her general direction.

“Beej?” she asked, making her way over towards her bed, sitting herself down on it next to her best demon friend and turning her attention towards him. “How long have you been waiting here for me?”

“Twenty minutes,” was the immediate response. Betelgeuse continued, “Babs and sexy said you were ungrounded because sexy wants more reference photos for his town model.”

“Adam and Barbara said I was ungrounded because Adam wanted more reference photos from me,” repeated Lydia. “What did he say he wanted this time?”

“Said the high school.”

“Oh, okay,” Lydia said. “I’ll go take those right now then I’ll give them to you to give to Adam the next time you decide to go up to the attic of the house.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Betelgeuse said, stretching. “Shall I teleport us to the high school?”

Lydia nodded, then grabbed her camera.

Betelgeuse snapped his fingers and, in a flash of light, he and Lydia were both gone, teleported over to the high school so Lydia could take pictures.

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse reappeared a few feet away from Winter River High School, Lydia clutching her camera in one hand and her Brown eyes focused on the school in front of her. She stepped a few hundred feet away from the front wall of the high school and aimed her camera at it in order to take her best photograph. Then she moved onto one of the side walls, then the back wall, and finally, the other side wall. She eventually met up with Betelgeuse again and smiled up at him.

“That should just about cover it,” she said. “Shall we go home.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth, Scarecrow,” Betelgeuse said with a laugh as he snapped his fingers to send himself and Lydia home.

* * *

They appeared back in the middle of Lydia’s bedroom, which had earlier been cleaned up of all the pillows that had been covering it from the pillow fight that Betelgeuse and Lydia had had earlier in the day. Lydia sat herself down on her bed and turned, refocusing her attention back over towards Betelgeuse.

“Did you want to go and explore someplace abandoned and look for ghosts,” Lydia asked her best demon friend. “That’s all I feel like doing right now.”

“Hey,” Betelgeuse said as he bent down to look Lydia in the eye. “Why don’t we focus on helping you figure out a way to be able to see Babs and sexy first then go out and look for lost ghosts. How does that sound, Scarecrow?”

“Okay...I guess,” was all Lydia said as shelooked to the side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my shorter chapters...but, don’t worry, the rest of the chapters will be longer.


	22. Trial and Error

“Now, Lydia,” Charles said with a sigh as he sat his daughter down in the chair in his office. Right behind him, the Maitlands stood. Lydia still couldn’t see them but hey, it was nice that they were in the room with them. “Have you tried looking at pictures of the Maitlands back when they were still alive?”

“I did that while I could still see the two of them,” replied Lydia as she looked down towards the floor of her dad’s office.

Charles motioned for the Maitlands to leave the room and go find out their old photo albums so that Lydia could look through them and off both ghosts went. Soon after, they returned with a bunch of photo albums (which were all floating in midair in Lydia’s eyes) and dropped them all in front of her.

Lydia picked one up and began to look through it, flipping through the pages at such a fast rate.

She put the book she’d just looked through down and picked up another one, doing the exact same thing as she was doing earlier: flipping through it at such a fast rate.

After she had done looking through all the photo albums, she looked up at her dad again and found that she still couldn’t see the Maitlands.

“Thanks for trying, dad,” Lydia said as she stood up and left the room. “But I still can’t see Adam and Barbara.”

He looked on as his daughter trotted up the stairs to her room then he turned to the Maitlands. “You guys go join Betelgeuse in Lydia’s bedroom,” he calmly explained to the two ghosts. “I’m sure he’ll manage to help Lydia be able to see you guys again.”

“Got it, Charles.” And, with that, the two ghosts teleported out of Charles’s office to join Betelgeuse in Lydia’s bedroom.

They hoped he could help.

* * *

Betelgeuse looked down at as he paced around Lydia’s bedroom, keeping an eye on both Lydia and on the Maitlands. Lydia was sitting on her bed and reading a book and the Maitlands were floating up in the air and looking down at Lydia as she read.

Betelgeuse stopped pacing, sitting himself down next to Lydia on the latter’s bed and resting a hand on her back.

“Lydia,” he said and the teenager’s gaze focused away from the book she was reading and onto him. “I want you to think of the many things that the Maitlands have done for you ever since you met them.”

“Hmmm...” Lydia thought and thought of the many things that Adam and Barbara had both done for her ever since she’d met them both in the attic (memories including them caring for her when she had a cold at one point) but when she opened her eyes again, she still couldn’t see either Adam or Barbara. “Thanks for your help, Beej,” theteen said sadly as she got up and exited her room. “But I’m going to go and find Delia. Talk to her for a while.”

As the teen closed her bedroom door behind her and her footsteps sounded down the hall and towards her dad’s and stepmother’s room, Betelgeuse let out a sigh and turned to face the still distraught Maitlands.

“Maybe Delia can try and help Lydia see you guys,” the demon suggested, giving both ghosts a great idea.

“Yeah,” said Adam, looking over towards Barbara, the female ghost’s expression mirroring his. “Let’s go and join them both.”

Before Betelgeuse could say anything in response, both ghosts teleported out of Lydia’s bedroom. Their destination? The Deetz couple’s room.

Betelgeuse was left standing in Lydia’s bedroom, staring at the now empty spot where the Maitlands were once floating.

The best he could do now was wait for any of them to return.

* * *

Not even Delia could help Lydia figure out a way to help Lydia be able to see the Maitlands again, the teenager leaving the room distraught. As Lydia closed her dad’s and stepmother’s room behind her, an apologetic looking Delia turned to face both equally upset ghosts.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help out either,” the Life Coach sadly said to both ghosts as the three of them sat together on the bed that Delia and Charles shared. “Did Charles and Betelgeuse fail too?”

“Yeah,” replied Barbara looking sadly down at the room’s carpet. “I’m beginning to think that Lydia might never be able to see us ever again.”

“Don’t worry, guys,” Delia said as she gave both ghosts a hug. “We’ll find a way to get Lydia to see you again. I hope.”

“We hope so too,” replied both of the ghosts, bouts of equal tears threatening to spill from their eyes.

* * *

Lydia reentered her bedroom and slammed her door closed behind her, both alerting and startling Betelgeuse, who was reading Lydia’s diary for several unexplained reasons, and he focused his attention over towards the teenager. He quickly hid Lydia’s open diary behind his back and then looked sheepishly at her.

“I wasn’t reading anything,” the demon lied.

Lydia was fuming, storming over to Betelgeuse, reaching around him, grabbing her diary and closing it before she slammed her diary down onto her bed and gazing furiously at Betelgeuse.

“WHY did you have my diary?!” the teenage girl angrily demanded to her best demon friend. “WHY were you reading through my diary?!”

“I...” Betelgeuse was backed up against a wall by Lydia. “I was interested in what your life was like, Scarecrow. I found your diary hidden in a secret drawer and I couldn’t help myself so I took it out and began to look through it.”

“That was my PRIVATE diary!” Lydia spat out in rage, folding her arms and glaring at Betelgeuse. “YOU weren’t supposed to be snooping through it.”

“Well sor-ry if I was interested in your life before moving here, Scarecrow,” the demon replied with an eye roll.

“Forget it!” Lydia said as she turned to storm out of her room. “I’m going to go and spend time with my dad and Delia. I’ll come back upstairs to hang out with you when I’m NO LONGER ANGRY with you for FINDING MY DIARY AND LOOKING THROUGH IT!”

Before Betelgeuse had a chance to respond to her, she stormed out of her room and the now-once again lonely demon could have sworn he heard her stomp her way down the stairs


	23. Too Angry to Hang Out

Lydia stomped down the stairs and entered her dad’s office with a huff, slamming the door to the office room and directing the attention of her dad and her stepmother over towards her.

“Lydia, sweetheart, is something the matter?” Charles asked as he and Delia stopped what they were doing and made their way over towards her.

“Yeah!” Lydia said, huffing again. “Beej decided to find my private diary and look through it! I decided to come down here because I wanted to spend time with you and Delia and because I’m angry at Bj for doing what he did.”

“Sweetie,” Charles said, placing a hand against his daughter’s chin. “I know mr. Geuse did something wrong by looking through your private diary but you can’t be angry with him forever. I bet he’s upstairs in your bedroom waiting for you to hang out with him.”

“Well!” Lydia said in a huff. “I’m still angry at him so I’m not going to even hang out with him until at least tonight.”

“Or,” said Delia, gesturing over to the office door. “You could hang out with him right now. See, he’s standing on the other side of the office door and looking into it.”

Lydia turned to face away from the door and folded her arms. “I’m still not hanging out with him.”

“Oh yes you are, young lady,” Charles said as he opened the door to let Betelgeuse inside.

Lydia sighed and rolled her eyes. Did she really have no choice in the matter? “Okay! Fine, I’ll hang out with Betelgeuse!”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Charles said as he and Delia watched both Lydia and Betelgeuse exit the room and head back upstairs to Lydia’s bedroom.

“Agreed,” said Delia with a smile, holding onto Charles’s arm.

She stood on her tippy toes and gave Charles a quick kiss, which Charles quickly returned.

* * *

As Adam paced around the attic, a hand resting against his chin, Barbara carefully watched him, her eyes following him as he walked and thought to himself for a few minutes.

“How else are we going to get Lydia to be able to see us again?” asked Adam as he stopped his pacing and turned to look over towards his wife.

“I don’t know, Adam,” replied Barbara with a sigh. “Charles, Delia, and Betelgeuse have tried what they could to help us. I don’t know what else they could do. If there’s nothing else they can do to help us then we might as well give up hope.”

“But we can’t give up hope just quite yet, Barb,” Adam said, coming over to sit next to her. “Lydia will regain her ability to see us. I know she will.”

“Yeah,” said Barbara with another sigh. “I guess you’re right.”

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse sat on opposite sides of Lydia’s bedroom, turned away from one another and folding their arm. Their eyes were closed and not one word was spoken between either one of them ever since they’d gone back upstairs to Lydia’s bedroom.

Betelgeuse could tell that Lydia was still angry with him, despite the teenager saying that she wasn’t. He didn’t blame her though. He knew that looking through her diary, her private diary, was wrong and he shouldn’t have done it.

“Hey, Lydia,” Betelgeuse quietly whispered to his best human friend.

“I’m not talking to you,” was the response he got.

“You just did.”

“Haha, very funny.”

Betelgeuse turned away from Lydia again and perked up when he heard the sound of knocking coming from the other side of Lydia’s bedroom door. He stood up and went to open it.

On the other side of Lydia’s bedroom door stood a worried Charles and Delia. The two of them looked around the room and their eyes fell on Lydia, whose back was still facing her bedroom door.

“What’s wrong with Lydia?” asked Charles, concerned for his daughter.

“She still won’t talk to me,” replied Betelgeuse with a sigh as he turned and looked over towards Lydia. “No matter how hard I try.”

“Well,” said Charles, sighing as well. “We were going to ask Lydia to come downstairs for a few minutes. The Maitlands would like to try again with Lydia seeing them both again.”

Lydia sighed then stood up, not even looking at Betelgeuse as she walked right past him.

“Good luck,” Betelgeuse tried to say. Lydia just went ahead and slammed her bedroom door in his face.


	24. If All Else Failed...Or Worked

Lydia sat on the living room couch and stared directly at the spot where the Maitlands should both technically be to her eyes. Charles and Delia had suggested thing after thing to help her be able to see the Maitlands again, but nothing seemed to work.

They were running out of ideas.

Lydia stood up, turning to face her dad andDelia with a frown on her face.

“Thanks for trying, dad, Delia, but nothing seems to be working. We might as well give up.”

“You might not want to give up just yet though, Lydia,” said a voice that the teen knew she missed hearing for the past two hours. “Why don’t you turn around and see if you can see us.”

And that’s what Lydia did. She turned at the sound of the voice and came face to face with the two she missed seeing these last two hours: the Maitlands.

“Guys!” she called out, running towards the two ghosts and enveloping them in a tight hug, which they both graciously accepted by wrapping their arms around her. “Boy am I glad to be able to see you again.”

“And we are glad you are able to see us again, Lydia,” the Maitlands reply in unison, smiles on both of their faces.

“I can’t wait to tell Betelgeuse. Oh wait, I’m still angry at him for what he did earlier.”

“What happened between her and mr. Betelgeuse?” asked Barbara in complete confusion, turning to look over towards Charles and Delia.

“He found her private diary and decided to look through it,” replied Charles with a sigh.

“Ah. I see,” Adam said with a laugh.

“Lydia,” Barbara said with a few soft laughs, floating down towards the ground and resting a hand on top of Lydia’s shoulder. She used her other hand to wipe a few excess tears from Lydia’s eyes. “You can’t be angry with Betelgeuse forever. Go upstairs and try to talk to him. He might appreciate it if you did.”

“I know that, Barb. My dad told me earlier,” said Lydia with a few giggles.

“Well then,” Barbara replied. “Why don’t you go upstairs.”

“Already doing it!” Lydia shouted back as she bounded up the stairs to her bedroom.

* * *

Lydia pushed open her bedroom door with a giant wide grin on her face, startling Betelgeuse and causing him to turn and look in her direction.

“Woah, woah, Scarecrow. Will you calm down please,” Betelgeuse said as he held his hands out in front of him. But it didn’t help much, as Lydia had already tackled him to her bedroom floor.

“I can see the Maitlands again!” Lydia shouted with glee. Betelgeuse disappeared from underneath her, reappearing a few feet from where she was now laying face down on the floor of her bedroom.

“That’s great news, Lyds,” Betelgeuse said as he helped the teenager up to her feet and sat her down on top of her bed.

“Did you want to celebrate by going out and looking for more lost ghosts, Beej?” asked Lydia with a bright smile on her face. “We could go back to one of the three places that we checked for ghosts before.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” replied Betelgeuse with a giant grin plastered on his face. He snapped his fingers and the two of them disappeared in a flash of light.

The room was soon silent, save for the fewfrantic knocks of Charles sounding on the other side of the door.

“Lydia!” Charles called out. “Are you in here?”

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse reappeared on top of the hill overlooking the School for Girls and Lydia smirked. Today, they were going to try and look for the ghost of the girl who had committed suicide by jumping off of the roof of the school and to do that, they needed to be on the roof itself.

Lydia’s smirk quickly became a smile and she turned her attention over towards Betelgeuse. “You think you can teleport us onto the roof of my school, Beej? That’s where we can hopefully find the ghost of the roof-jumper student.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Betelgeuse said as he snapped his fingers to teleport himself and Lydia to the roof of Lydia’s school.

* * *

“Wait...” Barbara said as she processed the information that Charles had just given her, Adam, and Delia. “You’re saying that Lydia and Betelgeuse disappeared from the house to possibly look for lost ghosts again?”

“Yeah,” replied Charles, looking down towards the living room floor.

“We ungrounded her to take pictures of the local High School for me so I could finish my model,” explained Adam and both Charles and Delia looked towards him, their eyes wide. “We were going to ground her again when she got back but then there was the whole she couldn’t see us for a couple of hours dealio and I guess she thought that meant she could go out whenever she pleased to look for lost ghosts with Betelgeuse.”

“Wait,” Charles said, gesturing towards Adam. “You went and ungrounded her a day too early?”

“Yeah,” replied Adam sadly.

“Well, I guess we’re gonna have to ground her again when she gets back with Betelgeuse,” said Charles with a sigh.

The others agreed immediately.

* * *

Lydia and Betelgeuse reappeared on top of the roof of Lydia’s school, the same part of the roof where that female student had jumped and committed suicide back in the 1850’s. Lydia couldn’t see any signs of female ghosts, going to the edge of the roof to check for signs of a ghost of a girl falling (she found little to nothing, sadly).

“I think we should just go,” Lydia said sadly as she rejoined Betelgeuse in the center of the roof. “No ghosts here.”

Just as Betelgeuse was about to snap his fingers so that they could leave, they heard the faint sounds of crying coming from the part of the roof that Lydia was just standing in a minute ago and the two of them turned to find a wispy White specter of a girl standing on the railing surrounding the edge of the roof and looking down as if the only thing the ghost could think of doing was jumping off over and over again.

Lydia made to rush towards the ghost, a hand outstretched in front of her.

“What are you doing?!” Lydia shouted suddenly, grabbing the ghost’s attention and causing her to turn and look over towards Lydia.

“Committing suicide,” was the ghost’s response. “What else would I be doing?”

“You could have already been in the Netherworld,” explained Betelgeuse as he walked towards the ghost and extended his hand out to her.

“What’s your name, by the way?” Lydia asked, a little curious.

The ghost took Lydia’s hand then, although she was nervous, Betelgeuse’s hand.

“I’m Marie,” she said. “What’s the Netherworld?”

“An alternate realm that houses ghosts like you and yours truly,” said Betelgeuse as he gestured to Marie and then to himself.

“So, was I supposed to go to this “Netherworld” when I died back in the 1800’s?” asked Marie out of curiosity and confusion.

“Uh,” Betelgeuse said as he thought to himself. “Yeah. Yes you are.”

Betelgeuse summoned a tote bag out of thin air and handed it to Marie who looked it over with a funny, curious expression on her face. Then Betelgeuse summoned a piece of Green chalk out of thin air, going over to a dome and drawing a door on it. He knocked on it three times and Marie crept closer to get a better look at it.

“So,” Marie said as she looked the open door like portal to the Netherworld up and down. “I just walk through this door and I’m in the Netherworld?”

“That’s pretty much how it works,” replied Betelgeuse. “You are a lost ghost after all.”

Confused, Marie turned to Betelgeuse. “Lost ghost? What do you mean by that?”

“It’s a term we use for ghosts who never made it to the Netherworld,” explained Lydia with a sigh and an eye roll.

“I...see...” said Marie.

“Are you going to go to the Netherworld or not?” asked Betelgeuse as he leaned himself against the dome next to the open door to the Netherworld.

“Right,” Marie said. “I’m going, I’m going.” She was about to head through when she suddenly remembered something vitally important. “Wait,” she said. “Before I forget, I just realized you guys never introduced yourselves to me.”

“Oh.” Lydia slapped a hand hard against her forehead. “I forgot. My name’s Lydia and the demon over there is Betelgeuse.”

“It’s nice to meet you guys,” Marie said in a hurry. “But as, Betelgeuse is it?” The demon nodded. “Betelgeuse said, I have to go to the Netherworld.”

“Okay then!” Lydia shouted back. “Bye, Marie!”

“Bye!” Marie called over her shoulder as she walked through the door to the Netherworld and it closed immediately behind her, disappearing from view.

Lydia turned to Betelgeuse. “Now shall we go home?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Betelgeuse said as he snapped his fingers, sending the two of them back home.

If only they knew what they were going to be getting into once they got home.


End file.
